Holes Left Unfilled
by The Holes Posse
Summary: ((HOLES)) Six fans of Holes, connected through the Internet, some even friends in real life, never expected that the thing they so admired would soon become very real . . . (Written by the Holes Posse Hangout)
1. How It Begins

Notes: Hey! We're The Holes Posse, and this is the fic that the six of us wrote. The six of us being Aly, Heather, Kate, Elanna, Relina, Shira, and Meta. You might know us Better as WheelerChick, Heatherchan, Eh, Man, Slvrfng, Shyz, and CherryKoolAid. But anyway, here we are. We each wrote different sections that I edited and made into chapters. If you want to join the Holes Posse, talk to Aly. There are some requirements and such, like you can't join just for the IF. But if you are really interested in joining and posting at our Hangout Board, email WheelerChick. Have fun reading, and when you're done please review! Thanks, we all appreciate it! Keep spreading the Holes love!  
  
((Notes and Editing done by Kate)) Disclaimer: We do not own Holes, as much as we would like to.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Elanna was sitting at her computer one night, or, morning rather as it was a little past one. But as school was out for the summer, finally, she didn't really care. At the moment, she was having a very spirited MSN conversation with her friend about different hair - fluffy hair, actually. The hair in question belonged to none other then Holes' very own Zero and Zigzag. In between typing messages, she was also online on three different windows. In one window, she was browsing Fanfiction.Net for Holes fics - new ones, or old ones she may have missed. In the second, she was insulting a poser who was pretending to be Khleo Thomas. And on the third window, she was exuberantly adding messages to her favorite message board, the Holes Posse's Hangout, which was made up of fellow Holes fans from the aforementioned Fanfiction.Net.   
  
As well, being the multi-talented person Elanna made herself out to be, she was also drawing in one of her many sketchbooks. The sketchbook itself had many drawings in it - almost half the book, drawing on two sides - but it wasn't as full as she liked it to be. Which was why she was constantly adding to it. Many of the drawings were anime, with some semi-realistic drawings as well. Although a lot of the characters depicted were from various fandoms, there were many original characters there as well, complete with mini-biographies. It was a joke Elanna often laughed to herself about, "Heheh, I've got a total mix of character personalities here! Someone might end up thinking I'm a skitzo!"  
  
The picture she was working on was of Zero. She finished the last detail of his hair happily and put her signature down with a flourish. She then stuck the sketchpad into the back pocket of her jeans along with her pencil and eraser so that she would remember to bring them upstairs with her, if and when she finally went to bed.  
  
Elanna stayed on for another twenty minutes or so before deciding to say goodnight to her friend, sign out, and finally go to bed. She signed out, told the Khleo poser to either f*** off or get some real proof, and prepared to leave one final message at the Hangout. However, as she was tired, her head knocked against the screen of her computer when she leaned over to type. She cursed but didn't get up because the keyboard made a somewhat comfortable pillow, and she was tired, so tired . . .  
  
Elanna fell asleep right there at her keyboard, her unfinished message still waiting to be typed, and thoughts of logging out all but gone; because there was no one awake to think them. All the other members of the Hangout were still online, and Elanna was too, technically.  
  
And something happened there, something no one ever expected. The dedication that the members of the Hangout put into loving the book Holes, the movie Holes, the characters of Holes, and fanfiction and fanart of holes triggered something. It was like the pure dedication became a being unto itself, a being that wanted to reward the girls for their dedication ... . . wanted to bring them together into a place where there were certain people they wanted to meet at a certain place.. . . .  
  
No one knew quite what happened, or how, but when Elanna awoke, she found herself looking up at a bright sky.. . . . a bright sky that was in the middle of a desert, where there was nothing to be seen in all directions.. . . .  
  
***************  
  
Kate typed at her computer, head cocked to the side, and biting her lip angrily. She had tried to download the movie Holes onto her computer, but it hadn't work. Now she was mad because she was deprived of seeing the movie. For some strange reason, movie theatres didn't sell tickets at eleven o'clock at night so she had had to resort to her computer. As well as trying desperately to find some hint of Holes in the empty black screen that was her computer, she was typing messages to other devoted fans on the Holes Posse's Hangout board.   
  
Sighing, she pushed her light brown hair out of her eyes and typed some more into the message she was sending to the Posse board. Some music was coming unceremoniously through her speakers, and singed aloud under her breath. For some strange reason remembering school assignments study notes was the hardest thing ever for Kate, but remembering song lyrics were like a second nature. She could hear a song once and know half the words. Kate had quite the song encyclopedia stored up in her brain, ranging from the hellishly-scary Barney song to Eminem. An ongoing groan from her classmates and friends was "Oh god don't get her singing".   
  
Kate also delved into books, which had led to writing. While in one of her 'read every book in the house' moods, Kate had stumbled across 'Holes'. She had read it again and again, never tiring of it. She wrote a few stories on the book, after seeing the movie and having her creativity sparked even more. She posted her stories on Fanfiction.net, and had come in contact with other obsessed fans, which led to the Posse board.   
  
Suddenly, Kate's vision started to waver. The room spun and became hazy, straight lines becoming fuzzy and transparent. Colors blended in with one another and rushed around her at a dizzying pace. The girl clutched her head, and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, she was kneeling on a hard, dry surface, her hands on her face. Slowly standing up, she stared around in awe at the desert all around her with the deep blue sky overhead.   
  
Nothing was in any direction, except for a small black figure lying on the ground about 100 feet away. As Kate started to jog toward the figure, she stopped dead staring at the ground beside her.   
  
It was a hole, five feet deep and five feet wide.  
  
************  
  
Elanna's blue eyes flashed open, trying to look around at her surroundings. She quickly closed her eyes again, moaning.  
  
"Who the hell opened my window blinds?!"  
  
She slowly opened her eyes, blinking against the sunlight and propping her head up on her shoulder. When her eyes were opened fully and she had taken a good look at her surroundings, she made a kind of squeaky noise and her head fell off her elbow.  
  
Where she had expected to see the familiar pink and blue flowered wall- paper of her bedroom, she only saw brown sand. A lot of brown sand. It was also very, very hot. She let out a breath she hadn't known she had been holding.  
  
"Ah, I get it now. I'm dreaming again. Why must my dreams always be so odd? Since when have I ever dreamed about a desert before? Whurph, crap, better stop talking to myself."  
  
The girl shifted, still lying full-length in the dirt. "Okay.. . . . Why haven't I woken up yet ... . .?" She then had a thought. "Crud, this is probably one of those nightmares where I need to force myself to wake up! Must . ... . concentrate ... . . "  
  
Elanna lay very still in the dirt, her face screwed up in concentration.  
  
"Aw, screw it."  
  
She picked up a little pebble on the sandy desert floor and scratched it against her arm. It hurt, and had left plenty of red lines too. Deciding the rock wasn't working, she tried pinching herself. That hurt, too. Slowly, the thought dawned on Elanna that maybe she wasn't dreaming. She stood, glaring wearily at the sand all around her - there wasn't anything else she could glare at.  
  
"I'm dreaming . . ... I gotta be dreaming . . . ..If I'm not dreaming, why else am I in a desert?"  
  
Elanna liked to imagine all sorts of things when she was bored, so suddenly, the idea of her being transported somewhere didn't seem so unlikely. But that didn't make being stranded in a desert any less scary. Collapsing to the ground, she started to babble about all the things she would need to actually survive in a desert.  
  
"IneedwaterandfoodandaplacetogotothebathroomandthisreallysucksandIwannagohom eImissmycomputerwhyisthishappeningtomeImustbedreamingI'mdreamingI'mdreamingI 'mdreamingGAH! Get a hold of yourself, girl!" She cried, slapping herself in the forward.  
  
Grimacing, she looked down and smoothed out her olive-green t-shirt with the caption 'Bugle Boy, Combo Girl' and an army girl's silhouette. Her expression changed immediately when she caught sight of what was crawling on her front.  
  
Crawling on her stomach was a tarantula. Elanna leaped up immediately and ran around in circles, screaming her blonde head off before remembering that tarantulas hardly bit and when they did, it wasn't dangerous. Gingerly, she plucked the leg of the large spider, and with it's hairy body dangling, she tossed it a good distance from her and scooted backwards babbling incoherently again about 'a damn big hairy spider.'  
  
Resigned to the fact that she actually may be stranded in a desert, she started to walk. She knew that when someone is lost, they should stay in the same area so that someone could find them, but she saw just how huge the desert was and figured if someone did come looking for her, they'd be able to see her anyways. She also knew that she should find a civilization, or at least water, so that she wouldn't dehydrate. At the very least, she hoped she would run into a single person, anyone, just so she wouldn't be alone, plus, perhaps they would have water ... . .  
  
"What I wouldn't do to meet up with someone ... . . "  
  
******  
  
Kate stared at the hole in shock, then looked up dazedly. The sun beat down on her face and shoulders, making her wish she were wearing cooler clothing then her jeans and t-shirt. Like, a bathing suit. Or at least a pair of shorts. She saw the little black figure that had previously been lying down was now higher, as if in the position of someone sitting. Wanting the company of something - anyone, she started running towards the figure. Not easy in searing heat and jeans. Apparently the figure hadn't noticed her yet. As she got closer, she realized with surprise and a tiny bit of amusement that the person (for she had figured out that it must be a person by now) was dancing around in circles.   
  
She was shocked by the hole she had seen. With those dimensions, and considering her surroundings, it almost reminded her of............. No. Couldn't be. She wouldn't let her thoughts turn to what she wished it was, because she knew how disappointed she would be if it wasn't. Somehow, on a subconscious level, Kate was convinced this was a dream. But she didn't stop to think about it, because in dreams you don't stop and think that it's a dream. You just wait it out. She was going to probably wake up soon anyway. She might as well make the most of it.  
  
Coming nearer, she slowed to a walk. The person had blonde hair and was wearing an olive green t-shirt. By the hair, Kate figured it was a girl. As Kate came up behind her, she heard the girl mumbling to herself something about spiders and meeting someone. Kate laughed to herself at the pure ironic-ness of that statement, and unconsciously tied her hair up into a ponytail with an elastic around her wrist. She stopped about five feet behind the girl and put a hand on her hip, she was exhausted from running across a desert in unimaginable heat.   
  
"Do I count?" Kate asked, her mouth quirking into a smile  
  
*************  
  
Meta was sitting at her computer in the dark. It was late, and she knew she should be getting to bed soon, considering she had an exam the next day. But she was too wrapped up in her 'multi-tasking' -- reading Holes fanfics and posting on the Holes Posse message boards. At one point, she was tempted to go upstairs and get her global binder and actually study, but then a particularly interesting story caught her eyes.  
  
All her friends called her 'obsessed.' Meta didn't really care, but was annoyed when they didn't listen to her ramble on and on about Zigzag's fun hair.  
  
Besides, Meta had met some cool people through Fanfiction.net and the Holes Posse boards that shared her love (coughobsessioncough) for Holes.  
  
On that particular night, there was a horrible thunderstorm. Meta knew that she should turn the computer off, but that story was SO GOOD. All of a sudden, there was a loud crash of thunder. Meta jumped and looked out the window, but turned back around to face the computer as it started to smoke. The screen began to flash, and Meta got dizzy.  
  
She woke up seemingly hours later. She rolled over to sit up, but then realized that she was not in her bed.  
  
"What the......" She said aloud, as she brushed sand from her hair. "Sand?"   
  
She stood up, and then realized that the sun was beating hard on her. She looked around for any sign of life. All she saw were...holes? It kind of reminded her of a book, but there was no way that it could be real. Once again, she scanned the horizon. This time she noticed something...two somethings. It looked like two people, one laying on the hot sand, and the other standing above her. They, like her, looked completely out of place and confused in this...desert. She watched as the one standing puller her hair into a ponytail, and then jogged over to join them.  
  
"Hey." She said to the two. "How did you guys get here?"  
  
*************  
  
"I wish the real world would just stop hasseling me, I wish the real world would just stop hasseling me"  
  
Rob Thomas, and his band Matchbox Twenty were being played through two two- inch speakers on Aly's computer desk. Her parents and brother had long since gone to sleep, leaving her the only one awake, in the house, hammering away at the computer. She was still dressed in the black Dickies, and a black t-shirt that read 'SUGAR RAY' on the front, displayed a picture of the whole band, with her favorite bassist Murphy Karges in a sombrero, and had tour dates on the back, of which she wore all during the day. Hundreds of bracelets and leather spikes were displayed on her wrists, and three ball-chains hung from her neck.  
  
She pulled a piece of purple hair out of her eyes, pushed her small black glasses onto her face, and yawned.  
  
"I miss ya Heather" she typed into an open instant message, and sent a picture of Magnet, her Hispanic buddy, from Holes.  
  
She couldn't never quite figure out what it was about teenage guys from broken pasts trying to make something of their lives. But whatever it was, it made her passionate, enough to write her own stories from it, and create message boards from it, and just plain obsess herself with it.  
  
"Too bad I'd never get a chance in hell with Magnet. Or Miguel Castro. Haa......that's fun to say. Miguel......Miguel.....MIGUEL FOR PRESIDENT! Heheh. He wouldn't date a punk like me." She put her hand on her face, and reminded herself of how crazy she was, and to chill out now and then. "I wish the real world WOULD stop hasseling me."  
  
Aly glanced at the clock on the computer. 1:37 AM. Great.  
  
She bent over to untie the black canvas Converse shoes on her feet that she neglected to untie earlier. As she did, she groaned at the piercing sensation from the pyramid belt that dug into stomach, and pulled one of the laces from the shoes.  
  
Suddenly though, the sensation intensified, and the piercing sensation seemed to take over her whole body. Aly fell off the chair, Matchbox Twenty CD still being played, though Real World had ended and Long Day took its place. She moaned, laying on the ground, and closed her eyes, trying to think about Magnet to calm her nerves.  
  
She felt much hotter suddenly, and she felt she might pass out or throw up, as it began to feel like she was falling. Then it all stopped, as Aly crashed onto dusty ground, and she lay in a black and purple heap in the desert.  
  
*******  
  
Elanna looked up very quickly as she heard a female voice saying, "Do I count?" with a hint of a smile in her voice. The voice seemed to be responding to Elanna's mutterings from before about wanting to meet up with something in this middle of nothing.  
  
"Aha, it is a dream, see, here's my guide and they're gonna tell me what do and I'll wake up and never eat chocolate chip cookies and coke before going to bed and-"  
  
"Hey, are you okay?" Kate interrupted the girl, eyeing her oddly as she struggled with her ponytail. "Would you open your eyes or something, you're freaking me out!"  
  
" . ... . oh . . ... " Elanna mumbled humorously before opening her eyes. "Hi, are you part of my dream?"  
  
" . . ... No, I'm real . ... . "  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
"Very sure."  
  
"Positive?"  
  
"Do I have to prove it to you?"  
  
"Yes, that would be nice." Elanna grinned, positive it was a dream after all, and that the dream-person trying to prove it was a dream would only accidentally make the dream go away.   
  
Kate grinned, and, leaning over, pinched Elanna on the arm, hard, but not too hard.  
  
"OW!" The blonde shrieked, batting Kate's arm away. After her slight moment of hysteria passed, she stared at Kate, her blue eyes very wide and her blonde hair somewhat tangled as it fell down her back. "You ARE real . . . I'm not dreaming?"  
  
"No, you're not." Kate grinned, amused by the girl's actions.  
  
"No wonder, DAMN did that hurt."  
  
"Sorry, hehe .... . . " Kate mumbled, smiling widely with her arm around her neck, a typical anime pose.  
  
"So if I'm not dreaming, that means . . .... AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH! I touched a tarantula! I TOUCHED ONE!!!"  
  
"So that's what you were muttering about . . .... "  
  
Elanna paused in her hysterical screaming, "Huh?"  
  
"When I was over there," Kate motioned to where she had found herself, "I saw you and came over, and when I was walking, I heard you muttering about a 'damn big hairy spider' or something and wanting to meet someone . . .... "  
  
"Oh. . ... " Elanna was silent. "You heard that?" She asked, grinning sideways at Kate.  
  
"Yep. Pretty funny."  
  
"I'd like to see how you would react if you just noticed a great big bloody spider just crawling all over you . . ..."  
  
"Not happening sweetie, don't try it." Kate answered, laughing and flipping her now tied-back hair over her shoulder.  
  
Engrossed as they were in their conversation, they stopped talking immediately when another girl jogged up, seemingly out of nowhere.  
  
"Hey," the girl stated. "How did you guys get here?"  
  
"Well, I was sitting at my computer--" Elanna started.  
  
"Hey, me too!" Kate interrupted.  
  
"Wait...You mean you didn't come here together?" Meta asked.  
  
"Yeah." Kate said. "I kind of, landed here, and found her. She was already laying here when I got here."  
  
"Oh. But do you know how you got here?" Meta asked again.  
  
"Nope, no idea." The two girls said together.  
  
"Hmmm.....That's strange."  
  
"Yeah it is." Agreed Kate and Elanna.  
  
"So ummm......" Meta began. "Okay, this is weird. If I'm stuck in a desert with people I don't know, I wanna at least know their names. I'm Meta.  
  
"I'm Kate." Said the girl with brown hair.  
  
"Elanna." Said the third with blonde hair.  
  
"Okay then. Let's see. We're stuck in a desert with complete strangers, holes EVERYWHERE, and no other human beings in sight."  
  
"Yeah, basically." Kate said. "Wait, look at all these holes. Doesn't it remind you of a book?"  
  
The three girls looked at each other, amazed.  
  
"Uhm........." Kate mumbled.  
  
"A certain book," Elanna trailed off.  
  
"Lets see, five by five holes everywhere, non-ending desert, tarantulas, and not a cloud in sight." Kate said, counting it off her fingers.  
  
"Is it just me or are these coincidences kind of creeping you out?" Meta said, staring around at the desert.  
  
"Well, all the evidence points to one thing," Elanna said. All the girls looked at each other and said one thing.  
  
"Holes."  
  
"So.........." Kate murmured. "Do you think we should start randomly searching for a Camp full of boys in orange jumpsuits?  
  
Elanna started to giggle. Meta and Kate stared at her.  
  
"What?" She asked. Then realized she was still giggling. "Oh. You forgot to mention really hot boys in orange jumpsuits."   
  
"Oh." Kate said, arm on the back of her neck. "Good point."  
  
Meta grinned. "And we're standing here why?   
  
Kate grinned. "Point taken."  
  
"One problem." Elanna said, and Meta and Kate turned and looked at  
  
"Ah. Which way then?" Meta asked. her. "Which way? In case you can't tell we're IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING DESERT!"  
  
Kate stood on her tiptoes in her navy sneakers and peered out in every direction. She was about an inch taller then the other two girls, not freakishly tall but a bit taller then most other girls.   
  
"I think there's a darker spot off that way." She pointed to the shadow in the distance. "That could probably be the camp."  
  
"What you say we head in that direction, then?" Meta asked.   
  
They started walking but then Kate suddenly stopped. "HOLY SHIT!"  
  
"What?" Elanna asked, staring at the ground incase there was a tarantula or yellow spotted lizard.  
  
"We're IN HOLES! Do you know what that means?" She asked excidedly.  
  
"We're going to have to dig five foot holes?" Meta asked.  
  
"Zero?" Elanna asked hopefully.  
  
"The BOYS will be there!" Kate said.   
  
"Oh yay, we're going to a camp full of thirty-somthing girl-deprived teenage boys." Meta said sarcastically, then laughed. "What are we waiting for?"  
  
Kate and Elanna laughed, and kept walking. But then Kate started to talk again.  
  
"Don't you guys get it? Holes! This is like, my dream! I love Holes so much, I'm even in a Holes Posse, I even-"  
  
"Me too." Elanna cut in.   
  
"And me!" Said Meta.   
  
The three girls stared at each other.   
  
"Wait, Elanna, arn't you........." Kate started.  
  
"Celestra." Elanna finished. "And you Meta........."  
  
"CherryKoolAid." Meta added. Elanna and Meta turned to Kate.  
  
"And Kate, that would make you,"  
  
"Man." Kate confirmed. They stared at each other for a while again, then Kate stepped forward and gave Elanna a slight hug, then Meta. "So we aren't complete strangers, then."  
  
"Nope." Elanna agreed.   
  
As they walked towards the camp, the Holes became closer together and  
more orderly. Not so randomly dug in the dirt anywhere. As they got  
closer, all three girl wondered how they got here, what it would be  
like when they made it to the Camp, and whether anymore Posse members  
would suddenly appear out of no where.  
  
*****************  
  
Heather sighed and ran a hand through her long, dark blonde hair as she studied the instant message windows that were amassing themselves on her desktop. All in all, there were about seven. She grumbled something and clicked a few closed without responding. She wasn't in a very talkative mood. Alyssa was going on about how Heather should come back to Ohio, and also sending pics from one of their favorite books-turned-movie, Holes. She grinned and turned up the volume on her headphones; Holes soundtrack blaring. The Holes Posse message board was minimized on her taskbar.  
  
Rain pounded against the windows of her home, but she barely heard it. Her alarm clock read almost one thirty A.M., and she still hadn't bothered to change out of her baggy jeans and blue MegaTokyo shirt. Paper was strewn across her desk, along with several drawing utensils, a CD case, and other miscellany. An unfinished sketch sat in front of her, having been abandoned for the time being.  
  
She was just about to key in a response to Alyssa's IM, when a particularly loud clap of thunder sounded overhead and her computer screen blipped off, along with anything else electrical in her room that was plugged in, leaving her in complete darkness. Her headphones, which were running on batteries, continued blaring as she jumped up suddenly and succeeded in bashing her knee on the underside of her desk.  
  
"OW! Dammit, what the....."  
  
She tried to maneuver out of her room to get to a flashlight, managed to trip over her chair, and land face first on the carpet. She squeezed her eyes shut and put a hand to her head.  
  
"Oww....."  
  
When Heather opened her eyes, it was no longer dark, and it was no longer cool and comfortable, like her room. She was, in fact, lying on her stomach, in the middle of what looked like a desert. She scrambled to her feet, eyes wide. Dirt, dust, sand, and more dirt lay in every direction. She began to panic, but paused as she saw a figure staggering to their feet not six feet from her. This only alleviated her panic for a moment as recognition of the figure came to her.  
  
Red and blonde hair, spiked. Black t-shirt, baggy jeans, red sneakers. The tall, lanky boy straightened, muttering obscenities and turned his green gaze on her. She did the only thing any logical person would do.  
  
She screamed.  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" she demanded, starting to back away slowly. "You don't EXIST in the real world you live in my head you can't get out you're just my split personality and what the hell am I doing in a desert with yooouuu!? Where am I?!? I want to know what the hell is going on here!"  
  
The boy grinned. "Oh, d'you always have to be so dramatic?"  
  
"Landis..... you're standing in front of me. I THINK I HAVE A RIGHT TO PANIC!"  
  
Landis shrugged and looked around. "Man, I'm having the weirdest sense of-- "  
  
"--déjà vu..... I know......" Heather wrinkled her nose and squinted, starting out on the horizon as if she stared long enough, she could cause some sort of sign of civilaztion to appear.  
  
"Uhh, who's that?"  
  
Heather followed Landis's gaze to see someone trudging over to them. Purple hair, Sugar Ray t-shirt, dickies, black glasses... no way. It wasn't possible.  
  
"ALYSSA?!?"  
  
Lyss squinted for a moment, then her eyes widened and she ran to Heather and practically tackled her. "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!? WHERE ARE WE!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE HERE!! AAAHH! OH MY GOD!!!"  
  
"Lyss, Heather can't breathe."  
  
The punk girl swiveled her head to shoot a retort at Landis, but her jaw dropped in shock. "W... ..wha..... Landex!"  
  
************  
  
Kate, Elanna and Meta couldn't actually see the Camp yet, but they did notice how the holes appeared more and more, as well as more orderly. Suddenly, Elanna stopped dead.  
  
"What is it, hun?" Kate asked concernedly.  
  
"Well, we're pretty sure that we're in Holes, right?"  
  
"Yeah . . ... " The two other girls trailed off, wondering what the odd blonde girl meant.  
  
"So we'll find Camp Green Lake, right?"  
  
"Right!" Meta said exasperatedly. "We just talked about this, remember?"  
  
"Yeah.. . . . " Elanna said slowly. "But, what if we're not in the right time?"  
  
Kate stopped walking and turned around too, facing Elanna. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Okay, let's say we find the camp, but when we get there, if we get there, the guys we want aren't there? What if we came here before or after our regular D-Tent guys were here?"  
  
"WHAT?!" The other girls shrieked.  
  
"You mean we might get here before any of the guys were here? Or after all the guys leave? But that would SUCK!" Kate complained.  
  
"Yeah! I wanna see Ziggy at the very least!" Meta complained. "How are we supposed to know whether this is the right time?"  
  
Elanna was quiet for quite a time, thinking. "You guys were both at the Hangout the time we got here right?"  
  
"Yep," they both responded.  
  
"Well, I've got a theory... "  
  
" ... " "Oh, I was supposed to elaborate?"  
  
Kate and Meta almost fell to the floor at the simple yet stupid add-on.  
  
"Well, it's kinda early for me to explain it now, and I only thought of it because it sounds like something I would write, but basically, I think it might have to do with us being Holes fans. I can't really explain it right now. Besides, I'm probably wrong."  
  
Kate cracked a grin. "You mean like how you were . . . ahem . . . confused easily?"  
  
"Shut up, you. Anyways, I think we will be in the right setting."  
  
"But," Meta cut in, "There are still four possibilities, even if it's the right time. It could be before, with Barf Bag instead of Stanley, in the middle with both Zero and Stanley, third with Twitch but no Zero, and fourth where both Zero and Stanley are gone."  
  
"NOOOOO!" Elanna wailed. "Stanley and Zero are my favorites, and there's only a one out of four probability they'll both be there!"  
  
"Hey, remember what you said about us being Holes fans? Well, we're fans of Holes in the middle of the book, with Stanley and Zero. So, if you go by what you kind of said before, they'll probably be there." Kate said logically.  
  
"Good," Elanna pouted, twisting some blonde strands of hair behind her shoulder.  
  
"Besides, at the very least, the other guys will be there!" Meta said enthusiastically, her eyes dancing.  
  
"I only want Zero." Elanna said.  
  
"I want Zero too, though! Well, kind of," Kate said, putting her arm behind her neck again in her characteristic pose.  
  
"Aly said we have to share at the Hangout, so I guess we'll share here too," Meta replied.  
  
"That's fine with me, besides, it's not likely either of us can actually get him as a boyfriend!" Kate said, close to laughing her head off.  
  
"Wouldn't that be weird dating a fictional character?" Meta said, grinning.  
  
"Yeah, but a CUTE one! He looks good in orange!" Elanna screamed, drooling slightly and collapsing into a giggle fit at the spot. Meta and Kate both stared at her. Again.  
  
"I'll try to stop doing that," she said; almost instantly sober. Kate and Meta sighed.  
  
There was silence as the trio started walking again, until Kate interrupted it.  
  
"Okay, so us two," she motioned to Elanna and herself, "are sharing Zero, so who do you want, Meta?"  
  
"I dunno, maybe Ziggy, though I'll probably have to share him too."  
  
"Share him with who? There's only three of us," Elanna protested.  
  
"Well, weren't the rest of the posse online at the same time as us? Maybe they got taken here too . . . " Meta trailed off.  
  
"If they're here, where do you think they are? Semi-lost like us? Completely lost? Maybe already chilling at the camp?" Kate asked.  
  
"Well technically, I doubt they'd be able to 'chill' within a thousand mile radius of here," Elanna quipped.  
  
"Wait," Meta cried. "Look over there!" She pointed. A great distance away, there were three upright figures that appeared to have their backs facing the trio.  
  
"Ooh, let's go see! Maybe it's Aly and Heather and someone!" Elanna yelled, jumping up and down hyperactively.  
  
"Maybe it's serial killers," Kate commented. There was dead silence. "I was joking."  
  
"Well, let's go see!" The three girls ran in the direction of the figures, yelling loudly and hoping to catch their attention.  
  
**********  
  
"It's too hot, Lyss, get your arm offa me." Landis moaned and pushed the girl's arm off of his shoulder.  
  
The purple haired girl just smiled at him though. "This is crazy!" she sighed, "Crazy go nuts!"  
  
"Guys, his is bad. We're wandering around in the desert with no food or water or cell phones or-" Heather stopped speaking suddenly, ignoring Aly's and Landis's confused stares.  
  
"Come back to Earf, Heaver," Aly waved her hand across her face  
  
"Sh!"  
  
She turned around, and looked into the horizon. Then her eyes rolled down. "Look! There's like....people are over there.....screeching....eep" Aly smiled. "Screeching civilization, AHOY!"  
  
Landis rolled his eyes. "C'mon, lets just keep going forward. I don't want to have to deal with any more psychos. I already got you and Heath."  
  
"No! Crazy insanely people are better than no people! Least maybe they'll tell us where the hell we are!" Aly grabbed his arm, and led him back in the opposite direction, toward the strangers. Heather fallowed.  
  
"Or, Landex," Aly continued, using her pet name for him, "Psychos are better than a band of Abercrombie models." she laughed as Landis shuddered.  
  
'What's with these Holes,' she thought, walking at a fast pace. 'There's like a zillion of em...everywhere.' The 'Dig It' theme song from the movie Holes began to run on a familiar loop in her head.  
  
They continued to walk forward, dodging the holes left and right as the figured became much clearer.  
  
"ALY?!" - "HEATHER?!" - "PIZZA MAN?!"  
  
Aly stopped dead. Landis and Heather both crashed into her back. She fell forward, and Landis and Heather fell on top of her, and rolled off to the side.  
  
"OW! BASTARD! LYSS!" Landis cried. Heather moaned, "wassat all about?" she rubbed her head.  
  
"Heaver...." Aly whispered, "They know our names." Heather's eyes widened, and the three of them froze as another set of figures approached them.  
  
"It's Aly, I know it," a blond girl whispered to another with light brown hair.  
  
Aly leaned back on Landis. "Who are you?"  
  
The three girls smiled, and the blond put her hand on her face, and then said, "I'm Elanna. This is Kate, and that's Meta," she pointed to the other two girls. "You are Aly, right?"  
  
"No, I'm the Easter Bunny," Aly said with thick sarcasm. Landis and Heather smirked behind her. "Tell me how you know my name."  
  
Kate smiled, "We're psychic."  
  
"REALLY?!" asked Landis, standing up suddenly, "COOL!"  
  
"No, numbnuts," Heather said, also standing, and Aly followed them both.  
  
Elanna, Kate, and Meta were giggling as Aly narrowed her eyes.  
  
"We have a theory," Kate said. They looked at her impatiently. "If you're Aly, and I'm assuming you're Heather, right?" Kate smiled at Heather, who in turn nodded. "And whoever you are," she glanced at Landis, "Then you're obviously fans of Holes."  
  
"Umhmm, movie and book," Aly nodded, and pushed her glasses up on her nose.  
  
"As insane as it sounds...look around you. 5 by 5 holes in a desert. Tarantulas. No clouds." Kate said.  
  
Landis yawned. "But to the chase." Heather elbowed him.  
  
"Dude," Kate said, "We're at Camp Green Lake."  
  
Aly blinked. Heather's eyebrows rose. Landis snorted.  
  
"NO SERIOUSLY!" Meta cut in, "If you were at the Posse board at the time you somehow appeared here! IT'S NOT IMPOSSIBLE!"  
  
"You were at my board?" Aly asked, confused.  
  
"Yeah!" said Meta, "CherryKoolAid!"  
  
Aly looked to the other girls.  
  
"Celestra," said Elanna.  
  
"Eh, Man," said Kate.  
  
Aly looked back at Heather. "Were you at the board?"  
  
Heather nodded. "So maybe it's not impossible...." Aly grinned.  
  
"So have any of you seen my Hispanic buddy?"  
  
Kate grinned, and slapped her hand to her forehead exasperatedly. "Do any of you SEE the camp?"   
  
Aly, Heather, and Landis looked around. They all shook their heads.   
  
"Nope." Heather said.   
  
"Nuh-uh." Aly added.  
  
"No." Said Landis. "Can you?"  
  
"Uhm." Kate looked embarrassed. "Actually, no."  
  
"I see." Landis said, raising his eyebrows.   
  
"There's a shadow over there. Does that count? And the holes are getting more......." Elanna said, searching for a better word.  
  
"Frequent?" Kate suggested.  
  
"No, holey." Elanna finished.   
  
"What the hell?" Aly asked, confused.  
  
"But we think we're heading in the right direction. " Meta pointed out. " We also have screwed up logic that says that all our favorite characters should be there. It's........tell them your screwed up logic, Kate."  
  
"Okay." Kate said, starting to walk in the direction of the shadow with the rest of the group following. "Because we're all really big fans of the book in the time when Stanley, Zero, X-Ray, Squid, Armpit, Magnet and Zigzag are all in D-Tent, chances are that we 'appeared' in the desert when they were all there."   
  
"M'kay, say what about how we got here?" Heather asked, staring at the girl.   
  
"Dunno, ask Elanna." Kate said. The girls wearing baggy pants made her feel slightly out of place with her tight jeans.   
  
"Whatever. How'd we get here?" Aly said to Elanna. Elanna just kept walking, staring at holes.   
  
"Uh, Elanna?" Meta asked. Elanna kept walking.   
  
"YO! ELANNA!" Kate yelled. Elanna looked up, startled.  
  
"Sorry, what?" Elanna asked. Kate shook her head and pointed to Aly.  
  
"How. Did. We. Get. In. The. Friggin. Desert." Aly said slowly. Heather laughed, and Landis rolled his eyes.  
  
"Well," Elanna said, starting again on her theory, "Since we're all holes fans, somehow that must have made us appear in where we wanted to be so much."  
  
"Okaaaay," Heather said slowly. "Sure, why not."   
  
"You have no idea how hard that was to get out of her the first time," Meta groaned. Kate laughed.  
  
"That's the lamest explanation I've ever heard." Landis groaned.   
  
"Shut up, you." Heather said.   
  
"By any chance do any of you just randomly carry a jug of water with you?" Kate asked the tree newcomers.  
  
"Uh. No?" Aly asked.   
  
"Darn, I left mine at home." Elanna said. Everyone stared at her. "Just kidding. Jeez!"   
  
Kate rolled her eyes. "Hey, is it just me, or do you see that shadow becoming darker?"   
  
"We must be getting closer." Meta said.   
  
"Well, this should be interesting." Kate said, staring at the shadow that was Camp Greenlake.   
  
Meta nodded.  
  
The group of six continued walking steadily towards the shadow on the desert floor, the shadow everyone was feverently hoping would be Camp Green Lake.  
  
Five people in the group were walking fairly normally, but Elanna, who  
seemed to run on solar energy, was skipping. Skipping in the middle of a desert with four people she knew only through the Internet and one she didn't know at all.  
  
"Goddamn it, it's hot," Elanna griped, suddenly stopping in mid-skip and rolling up her pant legs. Landis raised an eyebrow. "I always wear my pants like this," the girl explained. Landis shrugged; rolling his eyes and went back to his place beside Heather.  
  
"Who is this Landis guy anyways?" Meta asked, as if he weren't even there.  
  
"Lyss knows. You could say he's kinda my split personality. I guess he's here 'cause Holes isn't technically real . . . "  
  
"Explain later?"  
  
"Maybe."  
  
Elanna was bounding in circles around him. " I like your hair," she giggled. Landis stared at her uncertainly, then decided to glare, hoping to scare her off. It worked, and Elanna dashed behind Kate.  
  
"Zero better be there to protect me," she whispered laughingly to her.  
  
"Yep. He can ward him off with his shovel à la Pendanski!" They both laughed.  
  
Over the few minutes that followed, the gang of teenagers participated in the things teens did. Heather and Aly were chatting non-committaly, Kate and Meta were giggling and chatting about random things and Zigzag, and Elanna was making faces at Landis, hoping to freak him out and see if he'd glare again.  
  
It was Heather who stopped first. She bent down to tie her shoe, and the rest of the group crowded around her, wondering if something was wrong. When they realized she was only tying her shoe, and not dying as Elanna had asked, they decided it was a good time to take a break. They rested for fifteen minutes according to the watches on Elanna, Kate and Meta's wrists and stood up again.  
  
They all looked around for the shadow so they could get back on track and find the camp (and the lovely cool water stored there that would save them from withering in the hot desert air). They looked again, and again, and quadruple-checked after that. But they couldn't see the shadow.  
  
As one, six loud voices wailed into the air, "DON'T TELL ME WE'RE LOST IN A FREAKING DESERT!!!!"  
  
"How could this happen?"   
  
"What are we gonna do?"  
  
"We're all gonna DIE!"  
  
"I WANT MY MOMMY!!!!!"  
  
All of the girls began to panic. They all looked to Aly, as she had been the one who started the posse, and therefore had technically gotten them into this mess. Unfortunately, Aly was doing an Elanna, and trying to annoy Landis.  
  
"ALY!!!!!!" They all shouted at once. The girls seemed to have a psychic ability to all yell at the same time. As they were all loud, Aly immediately snapped to attention.  
  
"What? I SWEAR TO GOD I DID NOT STEAL THE COOKIES!!" She yelled.  
  
"What????" Elanna inquired, and by the looks on everyone's faces, they were just as confused.  
  
"Oh. Sorry. I guess i went off into my own world there for a second."  
  
"Um...yeah. So. What are we gonna do?"  
  
"What are we gonna do about what?" Aly asked. This caused several of the girls to groan, and Meta smacked the palm of her hand against her forehead.  
  
"What are we gonna do about the fact that we are LOST IN A DESERT, and have no idea how the hell we GOT HERE!!??" Kate yelled. The group of girls (plus Landis) seemed to be yelling a lot.  
  
"Oh that. Why don't we just follow that shadow?"  
  
"The girls looked to where the shadow had been a few minutes prior, and miraculously, it was there again.  
  
"'kay, that's just creepy." Meta commented.   
  
"Where'd the hell it go in the first place?" Landis inquired.  
  
"Wait." Kate said suddenly. "When Heather tied her shoe, we stopped and turned around to ask if she was dead, right?"   
  
"Uh, yeah. You WERE there, right?" Aly asked.   
  
"Shut up, I'm trying to make a hypothetical conclusion here." Kate snapped.  
  
"Sorry," Aly said, crossing her arms. "Somehow though I ain't seenin' any  
  
conclusioning." "She's doing mental conclusioning. You can do that, right?" Elanna asked.  
  
"Dude, I don't think conclusioning is a word, but can I get back to what I was saying?" Kate asked exasperatedly. Everyone nodded. "Okay. Jeez. ANYWAY, we turned around to watch the amazing Heather tie her shoe."  
  
"I kick ass at tying shoes." Heather commented randomly.  
  
"Sure, why not. Anyway, SHE WAS TYING HER SHOE." Kate tried to explain.  
  
"We know she's tied her shoe. It was awesome, but can you get to the point?" Meta asked.  
  
Kate was on the verge of having a mental breakdown. "ANYWAY.......we turned around, and faced the direction we came. We then decided to take a break. And sat down where we were standing. Facing the way we came. Now tell me, when we got up did ANYONE look in 360 degrees?" Kate aked.   
  
"No?"   
  
"Nuh-uh."   
  
"Nope."   
  
"I didn't."  
  
"Three hundred and sixty degrees is a circle, right?" Elanna asked.   
  
"Yeah." Meta nodded.  
  
"Are we supposed to count all the degrees separately? I mean..." Elanna got up and rotated about a millimeter in each direction. She finished. "I only got thirty." She commented.  
  
"CAN I GET TO THE POINT??" Kate yelled.  
  
"We've been waiting." Landis said.   
  
"Yeah I know." Aly said.   
  
"OKAY! My hypothetical conclusion," Kate said, with a glare at Aly, "Is that nobody actually looked in that direction." She pointed in the direction of the shadow. "Because everybody thought it would be in the other direction since they thought that was the way we were going."  
  
They all started once more walking towards the shadow.   
  
"Too.......hot............going..............to...................die....... ...." Elanna groaned.   
  
Kate grinned. "Don't worry, think: Zero will be there with a nice big bottle of water."  
  
"Or Zigzag." Meta said.  
  
"Magnet, too!" Aly added.  
  
And with wordless grins to each other, the holes fans kept walking towards the shadow.   
  
Are we there yet?" Heather whined as she plodded alongside Lyss and Landis.  
  
"No," the only male present answered gruffly.  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Are we there yet?"  
  
"NO!!! SHUT UP AND WALK!"  
  
Heather grinned and made her way around a hole.  
  
"The holes are getting a lot more frequent," Elanna observed. "We're probably getting close."  
  
"It still looks pretty far away," Kate mumbled.  
  
"I'm finally in the Holes book and I'll be dead before we ever freakin get to camp," Lyss said with a heavy sigh.  
  
"Eurgh . . . Kate, do I look dead to you?" Elanna asked, drooping over over- dramatically.  
  
"You don't look dead, um, whatever your name is," Landis replied, glaring again.  
  
Elanna stared at him in a groggy sort of angry way. "I'm Elanna, and that's Kate and Meta," she growled. "And I didn't ask you."  
  
"Lovely," Heather remarked. "By the time we get there, we're all going to bite each other's head's off."  
  
Aly grinned madly, walking in a circle slowly around Landis as though examining him. "I dunno, this guy looks like he could definitely use some ketchup," she said.  
  
Landis glared. Again. "Cut that out," he said, shoving Aly, who just laughed and shoved him back.  
  
"It sure is fun tormenting the only guy in a group full of girls!" Meta quipped, amidst plenty of laughs.  
  
"Indeed," said Elanna.  
  
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Now shut up before you all find yourselves dead in your sleep."  
  
There was dead silence.  
  
"I told you they were serial killers, at least, one of them was," came Kate's voice.  
  
There was silence once more as the group of six walked more. Those who had been more energetic in the beginning gradually slowed more and more until they were walking normally, the heat finally starting to sink in. Elanna could be heard griping about wanting her green Gilligan hat and some sunscreen, and perhaps her funky blue sunglasses, to which several of the group told her to shut up.  
  
After passing several more holes and one scorpion (the whole group quickly shuffled to the left of it and gave it a wide berth), Elanna stopped again.  
  
"What the hell is it now?!" Meta asked.  
  
"I've just had a thought," Elanna responded.  
  
"Ooh, did it hurt?" Aly joked.  
  
"Hahah, you realize I say that to my brother everyday, right? Anyways, presuming we get to Camp Green Lake, we can't act like we know the characters."  
  
"WHY NOT? We're NOT walking in a goddamn desert just to pretend we don't know the guys we wanted to meet in the first place!" Heather started screaming.  
  
"Yeah, I wanna see my hispanic buddy!"  
  
"Don't forget the Zig-man!"  
  
"Oh please, it's not like I don't wanna just walk in there and give Hector a hug, I do, really, but here, these guys are real people, and real people would think we were freaks if we just waltzed in there and acted like we knew 'em!"  
  
"Yeah, I think I know where you're getting at. If we act like we know them, which we do, they still won't know us, and they'll think we're uber-weird, and knowing Zigzag, he'll think we're aliens who read his mind or something." Kate said, placing her hand on her hip.  
  
"Ooh, the blonde's a genius, she thought of something to save our asses." Landis commented dryly.  
  
Elanna almost made a rude gesture but caught herself in time. "I'm actually smart, you know, but I think it's better for peeps to see me as a fun, hyper crazy chick rather then a know-it all brainiac turd." Screams of laughter made their way around the group, but once everyone had calmed down, all heads turned to Aly.  
  
"What, am I the leader or something?" Aly asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, you did create the board that started this and all . . ."  
  
"You people!" Aly cried, throwing up her hands in exasperation. "Yeah, okay, when we get there, act like you don't know 'em. Get to know 'em if you want, and remember to share. Y'all happy now?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
Pacified, the group kept walking, Elanna dancing along backwards, facing the group. All of a sudden, there was a shriek, as Elanna fell over sideways into one of the five feet wide, five feet deep holes.  
  
"I'm okaaaaaaaaaay!" Elanna's voice warbled from inside the hole, tinged with both laughter and embarrassment.  
  
"OH MY GOD!" Kate was shrieking, doubled over with laughter. "I just KNEW she was going to fall into a hole at least once!"  
  
After Kate spent about fifteen minutes hauling Elanna out of the hole, which she had somehow managed to get herself stuck in, the group of six continued walking.  
  
"You know, you're lucky as hell that there wern't any yellow spotted lizards in that hole." Aly commented after awhile.   
  
"Mmm. Nothing like finally making it to Camp Greenlake only to become lizard food." Meta agreed.  
  
"Well that was an awfully warm and fuzzy thought, I feel so much better about falling in a five foot hole now." Elanna snapped, brushing her blonde hair out of her eyes.  
  
"Jeez, guys, chill." Kate said calmly, pulling her ponytail tighter. "We'll be there soon. That shadow's getting darker." The attention of the group was spiked, and six pairs of eyes gazed out across the desert to the steadily darkening shadow.  
  
"You know, it probably would have taken shorter time to just go to big thumb from where we, er, landed." Heather said.  
  
"But if we had we wouldn't have known which direction the camp was in." Landis said, glancing at Heather.  
  
Kate groaned. She didn't know how much farther she could go. She hadn't had dinner, and the last time she had eaten was an early lunch at eleven. It was one in the morning when she had left her computer room. She hadn't eaten dinner because she wasn't hungry, but now she was sure as hell thirsty. They had been walking for what, two-three hours? Unless she had something to eat or drink soon, she would faint or be sick. She was so tired too. Kate knew everyone else must feel the same, but at least they had eaten something in the last twelve hours.  
  
"You okay?" Meta asked, and Kate nodded as the desert spun around her.   
  
"One hundred thirty six." Elanna said. Everyone turned and stared at her.   
  
"What?" Aly asked, confused.  
  
"The hell?" Kate muttered.  
  
"One hundred and thirty seven. We have passed one hundred and thirty seven holes. One hundred and thirtu eight.......one hundred thirty nine." Elanna said, staring around at the more frequent holes.  
  
"We're not going to be able to shut her up, are we?" Landis groaned.  
  
"No. It doesn't look like it, no." Heather commented.  
  
"This is going to be one hell of a long walk." Meta groaned.   
  
"One hundred forty six."  
  
"So........." Kate murmured.   
  
"Yeah." Meta agreed to apparently nothing.   
  
"How are we going to get out of this place?" Heather asked.  
  
"You want go get OUT? We haven't even met the guys yet!" Aly exclaimed.   
  
"Well, no not now, but eventually, you know? We aren't here stuck permanently, are we?" Heather asked again.  
  
"Probably not. As long as we want to be, I'd think." Landis said, being the voice of reason as Kate was being unusually quiet. "If we're supposed to believe the crazy girl's logic, of course." He gestured to Elanna who was walking happily along counting holes.  
  
"One hundred seventy three."  
  
"I'm thirsty." Aly commented out of the blue.  
  
"One hundred eighty four."   
  
"Arn't we all?" Heather asked.  
  
"One hundred ninty one. Wow, there's getting to be a lot more holes. One hundred ninety five."  
  
"Elanna, shut up." Landis said. "I'm thirsty, I'm going to take a wild guess the rest of you guys are."  
  
"I am." Meta said.  
  
"Two hundred ten."  
  
"Shut up, Elanna." Aly said. "Well obviously. I mean, who wouldn't be incredibly thirsty in the middle of a desert?"  
  
"Two hundred twenty one."   
  
"Elanna, SHUT UP!" Landis yelled. "Well, now that we've all agreed that we're thirsty......" He said, rolling his eyes.  
  
Elanna glared at him, and kept counting under her breath. The Shadow was getting darker and defiantly larger. It was defiantly something.   
  
The group suddenly realized they had been walking along a sort of dirt path through the holes unknowingly for the past few minutes. Thus why Elanna hadn't fallen into a whole for awhile.   
  
Kate said nothing, and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other willing herself not to pass out.  
  
The six tiredly dragged themselves across the old, dusty road, surrounded by holes.  
  
"HELLO!!"  
  
They all jumped.  
  
"Whoa," said Heather.  
  
"Where'd you come from?" finished Aly.  
  
The random girl pointed to a hole behind her. She sighed. "Does anyone know where we are?"  
  
"You mean you don't know?" asked Landis.  
  
"No."  
  
"We're assuming that we're near Camp Green Lake. You know. From Holes?"  
  
"Oh...."  
  
There was silence.  
  
"Well, anyway, my name's Relina. Relina Avanor. Just call me Ra, Re, Reli or Relina. Doesn't matter." Relina looked at the girl who looked exceptionally tired. "And who are you?"  
  
"That's Kate," answered Heather.  
  
"Oh," Relina said. "Can I come with you guys? I wanna meet the D-tent boys too."  
  
"Sure, why not?" said Landis.  
  
"Yes," Relina whispered as she jumped on the dirt road.  
  
"Are you thirsty?" he asked.  
  
"Hell yeah..."  
  
"Then you'll fit right in."  
  
((To Be Continued...)) ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* ~*~*~*~*~*~ 


	2. Welcome to Camp Green Lake

Author's Notes:  Welcome to part two of Holes Left Unfilled.  (Wow, we sound professional.)  

Again, this was written by Elanna, Kate, Meta, Aly, Heather, Relina, and Shira.  Basically, the Holes Posse.  For more about us, click on our profile page.  

A big thank you to the people who reviewed!  We know the first chapter was long, thanks for reading it.  

~*~

Now to answer those reviews:

Hannah:  Thank you!  We're glad you like our story.

BertieBottsGeorge:  Thanks for finishing and leaving a review, even though it was long!  We're going to need the luck what with digging five foot holes everyday! Thank you Alison! 

Shae Elven Heart:  Thanks for the review!  Did Tawnia then start muttering to herself about damn big hairy scorpions, then?  Unfortuantly, Elanna had only Kate to console her.  Thank you!

Tootsie87:  We're glad you like it!  Yeah, some of the strange, incredibly random comments are spawned from equally strange and random comments on our board.  You must have some awesome friends!  Good thing you like to read, because this chapter is 27 pages long on word.  Er, the counting was a mistake on Kate's part, who wrote the A/Ns in the first chapter.  (She apologises for not being able to count.)  She forgot to explain about Landis.  And Shira.  There will be a note about that after the reviews.  Thanks!

~*~

This is something we (namely Kate) forgot to explain in the first chapter.  Landis is Heather's split personality, who came out in the story because it is sort of a parallel to reality.  Landis is a fan of holes through Heather, so also appeared in the Holes world.  For this reason, he was excluded from the count of six people.  Another thing Kate forgot to explain, was how Shira also wrote parts of this fic, and is in it, but doesn't appear until the third of fourth chapter.  Sorry about any confusion.  

Disclaimer:  The Holes Posse does not own holes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Inhale, babe, inhale...now exhale...." said Elanna quietly to Kate, who was beginning to grown progressively weaker, "We're close."   
  
Kate nodded, and stumbled a little bit, but all seven of them kept walking. Aly shoved her glasses back up on her nose and squinted out into the distance.   
  
" . . .  We're not far."   
  
Landis rolled his eyes and muttered something about having to go to the bathroom sometime in the near future.   
  
"Just hold it," Heather muttered.   
  
Suddenly Kate coughed, and fell onto her knees.   
  
"OMIGOD!" Elanna shrieked, and barely caught her. Heather gasped. "Holy crap," said Aly. Landis and Meta said nothing. "She gonna be alright?" Relina whispered.   
  
Kate coughed again, and nodded, and inhaled and exhaled heavily, as if she was trying to catch her breath. Everyone started to gather in around her to make sure she was still alive. 

"Give her room to breathe!" Aly commanded.

 Elanna sat on the dusty ground, and pulled Kate into her lap, looking unsure, as everyone else moved further back to allow for breathing space. Meta and Relina has similar expressions on their faces.   
  
Landis backed up slowly, running backward into Aly and Heather.   
  
"Watch it Landex, we already have a man down.... literally."   
  
"Don't joke," retorted Elanna. Kate moaned.   
  
Landis rolled his eyes at Aly, and spoke, "Maybe one or two of us should run ahead to see how far away the camp is. I got a hunch it ain't too far, and maybe they can bring her," he glanced concernedly at Kate, "back some food, or definitely some water."   
  
Aly nodded. "I'm still pretty strong," she replied, "You wanna come? Heather?" Heather shook her head.   
  
"I'mma stay here, Lyss."   
  
"Mmkay. Landex, me you, and someone else if they want?" She pulled a stand of purple hair back behind her ear and Landis nodded.   
  
"ALRIGHT! Listen guys," Aly announced to the group, "Landex and I are gonna go run ahead, see if we can get to the camp, 'cause we don't think it's too far ahead. We're gonna see if anyone will donate some food or water or whatever, okay?" Everyone nodded. Kate groaned again.   
  
"Anyone wanna come with us?"   
  
Meta nodded her head enthusiastically.   
  
"Alright," said Aly again, "Heath, Relina, you two stay with Elanna and Kate. Me, Meta, and Landex are gonna go ahead. We'll be back in a little while .... I hope." she nodded at Landis and Meta, and the three of them dashed off into the horizon.   
  
".... Hopefully," mumbled Heather, as she watched them.   
  
Meanwhile, while the three of them, running closer and closer in the direction of Camp Green Lake, passed more and more holes, Aly was convinced she could hear the sound of voices chattering in the distance.

Relina, Heather and Elanna watched Meta, Landis and Aly's retreating backs as Kate stayed cradled in Elanna's lap.

"You okay, hun?" Elanna asked concernedly, peering into Kate's face.

"Yeah, yeah, and keep your head like that, it's giving me shade," Kate joked quietly. Relina and Heather looked relieved that Kate was at least talking.

However, they all stayed quiet after that, hoping to conserve energy. Heather and Relina sank into sitting positions beside Kate and Elanna. Eventually, Elanna spoke again.

"Hey Relina . . . "

"Yeah?"

" . . . Do you have any idea how you got here?"

"Um, not really. I was just sitting at my computer one night and posting messages on a Holes message board I'm a part of - "

"Wait, is it called the Holes Posse's Hangout?" Heather asked excitedly.

"Yeah, it is actually. How do you know?" Relina asked, tilting her head in confusion. 

"Well, we're all members of it too! See, we think it may have something to do with why we're here, but we don't know much about it. All we know is that we were all at the Hangout the time we got taken here. What's your username?" said Elanna.

"I post there under 'slvrfng.'" Relina said quietly.

"Oh my god, you're slvrfng?!"

"Yep," Relina said proudly, glad she was recognized. "Who are you guys, then?"

"I'm Heather," said Heather, rolling her eyes slightly. "No big surprise there, that's what I get for using my real name . . . "

"I'm CELESTRA!" Elanna yelled, who probably would have started bouncing around if Kate hadn't been reclining quietly in her lap. " . . . Oh, and this is Man here," she said as a bit of an afterthought, motioning down to Kate.

"Aly and Meta - the girls who went looking for the water and food with that guy - they're WheelerChick and Cherrykoolaid," said Kate, who was looking a bit better because of the shade Elanna was providing, but not a whole lot. "And Landis is Heather's split personality come to life here. I guess he's technically part of the posse 'cause of Heather, so that's probably why he's here too." Kate continued. 

"This is awesome! I guess I kinda know you guys then! Much better then being stuck in a desert with TOTAL strangers, in any case . . . "

* * * With Aly, Meta and Landis * * *

Aly, Meta and Landis were running through the desert, not as hard as they could for fear of depleting their energy and no longer being a help to anyone, but fast enough to get them to Camp Green Lake fairly quickly.

Meta risked a look behind her. "God, I hope they're okay. Kate's already down, so the others better stay all right too . . ."

Aly took a quick sideways look beside her at Meta while she ran. "They'll be fine as long as we get them some food, or at least some water." She said. Meta nodded and continued to run, pacing herself. 

Landis hadn't spoken since they left, and he was running with an almost painful look on his face.

"What's wrong with you?" Aly commented, seeing his expression.

"I still have to go to the washroom," he grunted.

Aly and Meta stopped dead, both staring at him. ""WHY DIDN'T YOU GO BEFORE WE LEFT?!?!?!"" They both screamed at him.

Landis had stopped running and was doing what only could be described as a 'dance.' "Didn't want to waste time and Heather told me to hold it," he said. "Aagh, I REALLY gotta go," he near whimpered.

Meta stared at him with a look of disgust on her face. "Go on then, there's a hole over there!" She pointed. "We'll wait for you." 

Landis glared before running to the hole. Making sure nothing was living in it, he jumped down into it. Meta and Aly stared determinedly in the other direction, grins threatening to crack on their faces. When Landis finished, he ran over to them.

"Did you have a good time?" Aly quipped. 

"Shut up, and let's go."

The girls almost laughed but stopped when Landis gave each of them a murderous glare. 

They continued to run. After a while, they came to a spot where there were holes everywhere, except for a path that was obviously there so the water truck could make its rounds. All around them, they head voices, and actually saw shovels flinging dirt into the respective dirt piles surrounding the holes in which people were obviously digging. 

At the sound of footsteps, several heads looked up over the edge of their holes. However, as far as Aly, Landis, and Meta could see, they weren't in the area where D-Tent was digging. 

"Oh my god, Aly," Meta breathed. "We're HERE. At Camp Green Lake. There are guys DIGGING right here."

"Wicked," Aly muttered, looking around quickly. "Listen, we'll look for D-Tent later, right now, we gotta get water to Kate and the others."

"Right," Meta agreed. She noticed all the boys in the holes had stopped digging, and were staring obviously at her and Aly. "WHAT?!" She screamed. "Haven't you ever seen a girl before?!" She stopped, realizing her mistake of the fact that most of the guys probably hadn't seen a girl for a while. "Never mind!" She called out. The guys just stared more. 

"Come on, they're staring." Landis hissed, dragging Meta and Aly by the wrists and dragging them along the path the water truck had made. Aly and Meta both glared at him and wrenched their arms free. 

"Right, we gotta find the . . . the Warden." Aly said quietly. "Much as I'd rather not, she's the only one who can get someone over there with water. The Warden controls the water, you know," she said, grinning at the in-direct book reference.

""Right."" Meta and Landis both agreed. "Look over there, you can see all the buildings and tents and stuff," Meta observed. "Her cabin's gotta be around there somewhere."

"Wonderful, now we get to run some more," Landis griped. Aly whacked him. 

"Well, here's an idea," stated Meta. "If we run there while making some noise, it might attract her attention and we won't have to run all the way there."

"Might as well," Aly shrugged. 

They took off running towards the cabin, screaming their heads off, much to the bewilderment of the watching diggers, who after all, had no idea who the strange people were, how they got there, or what it was they were whispering about.

* * * In the Warden's cabin * * *

Louise Walker **_(According to the IMDB  [International Movie DataBase] , 'Louise' is the Warden's real first name)_** was having a heated discussion with the two head counselors at her 'camp.'

"This is not working out," she hissed at Mr. Sir and Mr. Pendanski. "There aren't enough diggers in this camp to find whatever treasure Barlow hid out here. Too much desert, not enough campers! Why haven't you come up with anything yet?!"

Pendanski stepped forward. "I told you already, you should accept more campers so they cou - "

The Warden whirled around, coming dangerously close to slapping him. "And I told you already - - if we accept any more campers, the AG is going to get suspicious. They think this is just a detention centre, they have no idea what we're really doing here, and I do not plan on tipping them off. We need more diggers, but the AG can't know about them or else he'll call up an investigation wondering why we want more delinquents on our hands . . . "

All three of them were silent for a minute until they heard cautious knocking on the door of the cabin. Frustrated, the Warden called, "Come in!"

One of the counselors from another tent poked his head in. "Sorry to bother you, Ms. Walker, but there are three screaming kids out there saying they need to speak to the Warden . . . "

Louise Walker was a clever woman, and already, a plot was beginning to form inside her head. She grinned dangerously. "Send them in."

_*   *   *  Somewhere in the desert *   *   *_

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

"Elanna, hun, do you wanna shut up?" Kate asked, squinting up at her. 

"My neck hurts," Elanna muttered. "Can I sit up?" 

Kate laughed a little and Heather shook her head. Relina just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you can." Heather said.

"I'll be strong and brave the sun." Kate said, and pushed herself up a little. The sun hit her unexpectedly; full force, and her vision blurred and became oddly soft and white around the edges. 

"Kate? You okay? You're kinda pale all of a sudden." Heather asked. She looked at Elanna, who shrugged. Relina looked down at Kate and tilted her head sideways. 

"Oh. Okay. Really don't feel good." Kate said suddenly. She swallowed.

"Breathe, just breathe, okay babe?" Elanna said. "In, out. Come on, you can do it." 

"You puke on me and I'll be forced to hurt you." Heather said calmly. Relina gave a small smile and nodded.

"Okay. Sorry." Kate said quietly.

"Don't apologize." Elanna said immediately.

"Sorry." Kate said automatically.

"KATE!" Elanna yelled. 

"Ow. Sorry.  Easy on the migraine. I mean, no, I'm very un-sorry." Kate whispered.

"Way to yell." Heather said to Elanna. 

Relina laughed at the randomness of that statement. "I agree."

Elanna nodded, looking down at Kate who had her eyes squeezed shut.   
  
"They'd better hurry."

_*   *   * Back to the guy and girls storming Camp Green Lake *   *   *_

"Is it just me, or is this just a little too easy?" Aly asked as she, Meta, and Landis were led by a counselor to the Warden's cabin.

"Maybe the Warden isn't really that bad," Meta suggested, earning a strange look from the counselor.

Landis shushed her and shook his head. "Are you kidding?" He whispered. He took on a really high squeaky voice. "Excuse me?"

Aly grinned and Meta giggled. As the counselor was a few steps ahead, he hadn't heard the quiet imitation.

"So what exactly are we going to say?" Landis asked. "We just suddenly appear out of nowhere in a desert and think to look for a camp?"

"And the problem with that is ..........." Aly asked.

"Well, come on, we have to find a reason to be in the desert," Landis explained.

"Other then wanting to pee in holes," Meta added, grinning at Landis.

"Shut up!" Landis said quickly, turning slightly red.

Aly laughed, but shook her head. "As much as I hate to admit it, Landex is right."

"Ha!" Landis grunted.

"How about we were on a plane, but it crashed in the middle of the dried lake? And we walked here. No way are they actually going to go out and search for a plane wreck," Aly suggested.

"Sure, why not." Meta shrugged.   
  
"Okay, we were on a plane to where?" Aly asked.

"Uhm. Austin?" Meta said. "It's the only place I know in Texas." 

"Fine. We were all on a plane to Texas, from whatever places we're actually from to explain our different accents."

The girls nodded.

"Hurry up, the Warden hasn't got all day!" the counselor said as he held open the door to her cabin.

"Jeez. We're coming. Chill." Aly muttered. The counselor glared at her. 

"Well, we are!" Meta added. Landis rolled his eyes.

Aly, Meta, and Landis were quiet as they entered the Warden's cabin. After hours wandering the desert in the hot sun, the blast of the air conditioning made goose bumps appear on all of them.

 "Here are the children," said the counselor.

"HEY! We're NOT children! We're - " began Landis, until Aly clapped her hand over his mouth.

"Hello," said the Warden, in a cool, calm voice. "And what are two young women and one young man doing in the middle of a desert?"

"Well, we were on a plane, going to Austin, to visit, um, our grandparents . . ." began Meta, stumbling slightly as she said the story. 

"Yeah, we're, uh, cousins!" Aly added to cover the silence. Becoming 'cousins' wasn't part of the original plan, after all. "But the plane crashed in the middle of the desert."

"We saw this ... place ... from a distance, and decided to walk here."

"Yeah, we were walking for hours and hours and hours and hours. I had to pee in a hole!" Landis exclaimed excitedly.

"Our other, er, cousins are still out there. One of them collapsed on the way here, and the others stayed behind to watch her."

"Alright. We will go out to get your cousins. You will lead us," said the Warden curtly.

"Okay."

_*   *   * Back with Kate, Elanna, Relina, and Heather *   *   *_

Three hours had passed, and the sun was still fairly bright. The four girls were beginning to get worried . . . . Make that three girls. Kate had fallen asleep, but Elanna, Relina, and Heather were as alert as ever.

"Where are they?" Heather asked.

"I don't know. I wish I knew," Relina responded. There was a little bit of hopelessness in her voice.

For the next few minutes the girls stayed quiet, listening to Kate's ragged breaths. They seemed to have made a silent pact that no one would talk unless absolutely necessary. Their throats were extremely dry, and it was hard to swallow, let alone put together a coherent sentence.

"Wait .... what's that?" Elanna asked. A fleck of moving light had appeared on the horizon. They heard a little noise, but couldn't figure out what it was. As the fleck of light drew closer, they could hear their own names being called.

"ELANNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAA! HEEEEEEEATTTTTTTHERRRRRRRRR! RELLLLLLLINNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"

The three girls who were awake mustered up their energy and called out, in unison, "ALY?? META?? LANDIS??" This caused Kate to wake up, screaming.

"AUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Sometime in the next few minutes, Aly, Landis, and Meta came running over to them, trailed by the Warden, Mr. Sir, Pendanski, and the counselor who had taken them to the Warden. The Warden's Cadillac as well as the water truck was parked on hand. Pendanski held a flashlight, and accidentally shined it right in Kate's eyes.

"OW!!! OW!!! STOP IT!" she yelped.

The counselor helped Kate up, and helped her walk a bit. As they approached some holes, the Warden spoke. In a nasty voice, she said, "You all will be staying in D-Tent. It's the largest. Mr. Sir here will put in new bunks for you tonight. You will be given orange jumpsuits, and you will wear them. Pendanski will explain what you are going to do. Right now, I suggest you conserve some energy. You will be waking up early tomorrow, at four o'clock."

"What? Why?" said Landis innocently. He knew perfectly well why they were waking up that early, but didn't want to advertise it.

"Excuse me?" said the Warden. This caused Meta and Aly to giggle, as they remembered Landis' impression form earlier. "I didn't say you could ask any questions. Welcome to Camp Green Lake."

The Warden surveyed the desert as Mr. Sir, Mr. Pendanski and the other counselor saw to it that everyone received water and some food. Mr. Pendanski had moved Kate off of Elanna's lap, and Elanna took the chance to stand gratefully. The other counselor hurriedly offered her water while the others crowded around Kate. Elanna gulped it, along with the food, and was going to join the others before Aly, Meta, and Landis circled around and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Yeah?" She asked. 

"Before the Warden took us here, we had to give her an excuse for why we're in a desert. So as far she knows, we're all cousins who were flying on an airplane to Austin to visit our grandparents, but the plane crashed and we walked here," Aly whispered.

"Sounds good. You must have been on the spot to think that up that quick," Elanna whispered, looking around.

"Kinda. But we gotta tell the others before they question them!" Landis hissed.

"Um, okay. Gotta think . . . I know. I'll distract Pendanski and you guys tell 'em quick." Elanna decided quickly.

"Nice," Meta commented. "All right . . . why are you shuddering?"

"I'm shuddering in disgust. I can't stand Pendanski, I never could. But anyways . . . "

Landis, Aly, and Meta crept behind the water truck towards the group while Elanna strolled determinedly up to the short, annoying counselor.

"Hi! What's your name?" She asked in a falsely cheery voice. Damn, was she proud of her acting skills . . . 

"My name is Mr. Pendanski. Three easy words, pen, dance and key! What can I do for you?"

Elanna almost twitched because of how much she wanted to roll her eyes at the counselor. Inwardly though, she was amazed that he looked just like he did in the movie . . . Waving that thought aside, she did thumbs up to the others who were in the midst of explaining their hasty lie. 

"I was just wondering . . . What did that Warden woman mean?"

"Oh, everything will be explained when we get back to the camp." Pendanski said hastily. Elanna peered over his shoulder and saw Aly signaling that everyone now knew the story. The Warden took that opportunity to walk by Mr. Pendanski.

"I wasn't kidding when I said we had to get going. And," She pulled Pendanski away from the blonde, who was being joined by her companions, "and I need time to think of a lie to count as a reason for those kids having to stay here. I don't believe their grandparents story because we would have seen the plane and the plane crash, but I don't particularly care about that as long as we have some extra kids digging up treasure." She tapped her cap, and moved away.

"All right!" She called. "You four," she pointed to Aly, Kate, Meta and Heather, "Will ride back with me in my Cadillac. The rest of you," she motioned in Elanna, Landis, and Relina's general direction, "will go back in the water truck. When we get there, I'm going to explain to you exactly why you need to stay here and dig holes, as well as the rules."

*    *    * At the camp *    *    *

Once everyone arrived at the camp, they were forced by Mr. Sir to assemble in a line facing the Warden, Mr. Pendanski and himself. The other counselor left to do rounds with the water truck.

"What are we doing in this line? I thought you told us to leave so we can get ready for digging." Landis said, doing his 'innocent' impression.

The Warden raised an eyebrow. "Don't you want to know why you're staying here?"

The girls all looked at each other, wondering why the Warden possibly wanted to keep them here and make them dig holes when they hadn't done anything. Landis, however, who was treating the whole thing as a joke, just shrugged and said he didn't care, really.

"Excuse me?"

Landis straightened, suddenly remembering the danger. He shook his head. 

The Warden nodded, "Thought so." She began to pace up and down the line, scrutinizing each of them, while Mr. Sir left to do who knows what. 

"You will be digging here," she started suddenly, "because you are trespassing on private property."

The girls and Landis gave a cry of protest, which died out as the Warden gave them all a deadly glare. "Do not pretend you're not guilty. I know you are lying about you all being cousins and visiting your grandparents with the plane crash and all. Don't you think we would have noticed a plane crash? And wouldn't you be with the pilots and other passengers? But I don't care about that. I don't care how you got here, or why you're here. Just know that because you are here, and because you lied about it, you will be serving time here. I trust you've figured out this is a detention camp?"

The girls and Landis started protesting again. 

"It's not our fault we ended up here!"

 "How could we know this whole desert was your private property?!"

 "You can't just make us dig holes!"

 "Isn't this place for guys only?!"

"Shut up." The Warden said it quietly, but everyone stopped talking immediately. "The fact that you lied to the people who most probably saved your lives shows you all must have delinquent tendencies. Luckily, or unluckily for you, this happens to be a place where those tendencies are fixed. Now, each of you give me your names. Your real full names," she glared.

Hesitantly, each of the seven gave their names. The Warden smiled craftily. "I will be contacting the necessary officials about your actions of trespassing and lying to the superiors. Your parents will also be notified." In truth, the Warden had no intention of contacting anyone, but it felt so good, to her, when each of the girls (and guy)'s faces shone with anxiety.

"Mr. Pendanski will explain to you everything you need to know." The Warden turned on her heels and marched to her cabin. As they watched her go, they started whispering.

"Oh my god, I can't believe I'm being sent to a detention camp!"

"I can't believe I'm being sent to a fictional detention camp . . ."

"My parents are going to freak when they get the call . . ."

"My English teacher warned me things like this would ruin my résumé when I'm older!"

"SHUT UP, ELANNA! This isn't the time for your English teacher . . . "

"We have to dig holes, that sucks . . . "

"Is the Warden allowed to make us stay here?"

"Yeah, I mean, can those charges really be used against us?"

"This is unfair, they can't just make us stay here!"

"Yeah, we're supposed to go see our grandparents!"

"That was the lie Landis, remember?"

"Oh yeah . . ."

"D-Tent better be as good as I imagined if we have to actually dig holes while we're here . . . !"

Mr. Pendanski stared at the chattering group. "Ahem." He tried to get their attention, but they either ignored him or just couldn't hear him. Probably the former by the obvious way a certain blonde was glaring at him without acknowledging him . . .

"AHEM! Boys and girls!" He tried again. The group stopped chattering, looking at him with either mild interest or loathing.

"Now, I am going to explain the rules at this camp. Listen closely." Elanna rolled her eyes and Kate punched her lightly, grinning slightly. 

"You will be digging one hole each day. The holes will have to be five feet wide, and five feet deep. Your shovel is your measuring stick, so you will need to be able to lay it flat down at the bottom of the hole in every direction. We won't be out there with you watching you dig except to bring you water and lunch, so the longer you take, the longer you'll dig and have to stay out there. Understand?" He waited for everyone to nod before continuing.

"You will be given two orange jumpsuits, one of which you will change into as soon as we get you settled in the tent. The first set will be your work set, and you will change out of it once done digging, and into your second set, which will be your relaxation set. This process will be continued for three days, then we will wash your dirty work set and you will dig instead in your relaxation set. On this day, you will be given a clean set of relaxation clothes. You will have the opportunity to shower each day. There's only one temperature, which is cold, and the showers only last four minutes. For you girls, we have a special shed behind the Warden's cabin that you can use to shower. Also, you will be provided with hats and canteens, as well as a crate for any things you might have."

The girls and Landis nodded, each one smiling slightly because of all the times they read speeches similar to this one - - from Holes itself.

Mr. Pendanski turned red and started to stutter. "If - if there's any - any per-personal feminine hy-hygiene issues, you can speak to the Warden about it."

"Yeah, the Warden would know, because it seems like she's on permanent PMS," Kate cracked silently to the group. The whole group worked very hard at concealing their grins.

"Now, the Warden says you're all supposed to be in D-Tent," Pendanski continued, "Or for me at least to be your counselor, but you all can't fit in the tent, so I'm going to see if you girls can get a private tent to share, and you," he pointed to Landis, "will just go into the guys tent. You'll all be in D-Tent though, we haven't got counselors to spare in any case . . . "

Mr. Pendanski turned away. "You seven, stay by the shower stalls. No, there's no one in them," he said, seeing some of the looks the girls gave him. "I've got to go see the Warden about erecting a separate tent for the girls, but if I find out that one of you has moved while I'm gone . . . Anyways, no one will be finished yet, but once the rest of D-Tent is finished digging, you can meet them."

Mr. Pendanski jogged off to the Warden's cabin. After he had left, the six girls began cheering. "OH YEAH!!! WE'RE IN D-TENT! THIS ALMOST MAKES UP FOR US BEING FORCED TO DIG!!!"

Elanna was shivering in anticipation. "I'm gonna meet Zero . . . and Stanley . . . and Squid and Zigzag and Magnet and X-Ray and Armpit . . . I can't believe this . . . "

"Calm down Elanna, do we need to instruct ya how to breathe?" asked Relina, grinning in spite of herself.

After similar reactions from each of the girls (including a "BOO-YAH! I'M MEETING THE HISPANIC BUDDY!" from Aly), they all calmed down a bit. Landis was a bit peeved seeing as the only other female beside the ones he was with already was the Warden.

Further away, Mr. Pendanski had told the Warden about how the girls would need a separate tent. She had agreed, and in no time, Mr. Sir had been able to erect a tent roughly the same size as all the others, and located a little behind D-Tent. From the storage room, seven cots had been brought out, and six of them were placed into the newly erected girls tent. Over the tent's door flap, a piece of cardboard with a hastily scribbled 'D2' hung to identify the tent. The seventh cot had been placed inside the original D-Tent. 

" - but I don't see why you had to put them all in my tent, Louise!" Mr. Pendanski was complaining.

"You want to know why? Because you're the only counselor who'll actually treat the girls decently, and no one at all in D-Tent was put away for harassment or anything, that's why. As far as everyone else knows, these girls are criminals too, but I still will not have girls being treated badly here for any reason. Oh, and there's one more reason."

"What's that?"

"Because I said they were going into D-Tent, you pig. That should have been good enough reason."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Now go give those girls and their guy-friend their jumpsuits, canteens and hats. Mr. Sir and I'll find blankets, pillows and crates and all that other crud."

"Yes, right away."

The Warden watched as he scurried back to Mr. Sir's office to retrieve the jumpsuits and what not. "Didn't even have to call the AG," she smirked.

_******************_

"So now what?" Meta asked as the girls sat on their cots. Their orange jumpsuits, canteens, boots, and hats sat in their crates, seeing as they really didn't have anything else to put in them. Landis sat next to Heather on her cot.

"Well, I guess we put on our famous sexy orange jumpsuits," Kate suggested with a smile.

Elanna shrugged. "Well, lets see how the jumpsuits look on girls." She stood up. "Alright crazy hair guy, out. OUT!!" She yelled pointing at Landis. "NO WAY I'm I changing in front of you!" 

Landis rolled his eyes and walked out of the tent mumbling something about crazy girls. 

The girls grabbed their jumpsuits, and after stripping down to their underwear and bras, pulled on the thick orange fabric. 

"Uh. Are we supposed to wear our t-shirts underneath?" Relina asked. 

Aly shrugged. "I don't know. I think the original D-Tent boys wore white t-shirts and undershirts, but that's gotta be hot wearing a black t-shirt like mine under one of these things." she said, gesturing to her jumpsuit. 

"Well, I'm not going to. It's going to be way too hot." Kate groaned. Elanna nodded. "Me either."

After putting their clothes back in the crates, the girls lay back on their cots.

"These ....... things ....... are ........ so .............. uncomfortable!" Heather grunted as she tossed and turned trying to get comfortable. A knock on the metal pole supporting the front of the tent signaled Landis' return.

"You girls done stripping in there?" he asked as he timidly peeked in the flap. 

"Oh shut up." Aly groaned, and threw her pillow at him. He caught it and sat at the end of Aly's cot. 

There were six cots in two rows of three in the D2 tent, each row against the wall. From the far end were Kate, Elanna, and Meta, then on the other side from the far end Aly, Heather, and Relina. The crates were all piled at the far end between the rows. 

Elanna's jeans fell from her crate to the floor, and she got up to put them back. Picking them up from the floor, she idly folded the fabric to shove it into the crate. Her fingers met a bulge in the back pocket. "What the heck?" she muttered, and sat down on her cot with the jeans. Kate went and sat beside her. 

"What is it?" Kate asked.

Elanna pulled the rectangular object from her pocket. It was her sketchbook. She grinned, and flipped through it. She and Kate saw pictures of different Holes characters, and other random people and things. 

"Like drawing much?" Relina commented as she came and also sat on Elanna's cot. 

"Just a bit." Elanna said with a smile. She shoved the sketchbook, pencil, and eraser into one of the many pockets of the orange jumpsuit for looking at later. 

"Hey, incoming Zero!" Meta said in a loud stage whisper to the rest of the tent. 

This calm comment was met with six people jumping up and running to the entrance to the tent with various choruses of, "What? Where?!" and "Oh my god!" Aly pushed everyone back from the entrance and gave everyone a little 'D-tent' pep talk. 

"Alright, you know the story of how we got here. Stick to it. And remember that they might not be exactly like they were in the book slash movie. And remember that you DO NOT KNOW THEM!" Aly said quickly. 

The rest of the group stared at her, then Kate and Elanna simultaneously saluted her and said, "Yes, Ma'am!" Everyone else rolled their eyes and turned back to the entrance. 

There was unmistakably Hector 'Zero' Zeroni, walking with his head down and his shovel over his shoulders. Elanna inhaled her breath for a girlish squeal, but Kate discretely elbowed her hard in the ribs. 

Landis grabbed Heather and Aly's arms and pulled them a little ways back into the tent. "Don't you think it might look a little suspicious if we're all staring at the kid in awe?" Aly and Heather nodded, and sat down on their cots. Landis crossed his arms and leaned against the crates. 

Kate, Elanna, Relina, and Meta watched from the tent flap as Zero put his shovel away and walked towards D Tent. Then he stopped and looked at the new tent with the hastily scribbled 'D2' with wide eyes. Slowly, the girls watching from the entrance of the tent filed out, and Aly, Heather, and Landis followed. 

"Hi." Aly said. 

_*   *   * A little beforehand *   *   *_

Hector Zeroni pulled himself, with some effort, out of his recently finished hole. He took off his green bucket hat and shook it free from excessive dirt that had piled on it throughout the day. Putting his hat back on, he dusted of his dirty jumpsuit before spitting in his hole. 

"You done, Zero?" Stanley called from his hole, which was a little bit more then halfway done. Zero nodded before walking over to where Stanley was digging. 

"I'll wait for you in the tent," he said quietly.

Stanley smiled slightly. "You may have to wait a while, I'm not even close to finishing."

Zero just shook his head, smiling slightly. He turned, picked up his shovel, which was still lying by his hole, and slung it over his shoulder. Grimacing slightly at prospect of the long walk in the hot sun ahead of him, he began to walk back to the camp.

As he walked, he recalled what Stanley had taught him the day before. Almost unconsciously, he spelled out some simple words for practice.

Soon enough, he arrived at the camp compound. Just like every other day, the grounds were empty and devoid of campers, as all the other campers were still out in the desert digging their holes. That's what happens when you're a fast digger . . . 

Zero walked over to the shed marked 'Library' and placed his shovel inside it. As he turned around, closing the shed's door, he caught sight of Mr. Pendanski running towards him. He flinched, wondering if the man was going to taunt him again, as he did sometimes when Zero was the only camper in the grounds.

 Zero stayed where he was and waited for Mr. Pendanski. He caught up at last, puffing heavily. 

"I thought I saw you finishing," he panted.

Zero remained silent.

"Well, don't you have something to say?"

Zero was quiet, staring at Mr. Pendanski, his eyes expanding as though challenging him to say something intelligent, for a change. 

Mr. Pendanski did not meet him for his challenge, however, and said instead, "We have a few new campers that are going to be a part of D-Tent. They're over by the tents now, why don't you go greet them?" He didn't even wait for an answer before jogging off. Zero stared after him for a moment before heading towards the tents.

Zero wasn't really concerned about the new campers. He had seen campers come and go. Camp Green Lake was just a routine, something that happened over and over again. Sleep. Dig. Eat. Sleep. Dig. Eat. It ran on a continuous loop. Even when new campers came, they adjusted quickly, and the loop would start over again, only maybe with a different face that became familiar over time. Unfortunately, it was home to him, but in the end, it was all pointless.

_'Well, not always,'_ Zero admitted to himself. _'Stanley was a new camper, and now he's the best friend I've ever had.'_ So Zero headed towards the tents, deciding he would give the campers a chance. In any case, his towel was in the tent, and he planned on showering before Stanley was free to go to the Wreck Room. It wasn't safe to have a reading lesson today because of the new campers . . . 

When he came in sight of the tents, he started, and looked hard. His eyes hadn't been playing tricks on him - - there was one more tent, stationed slightly behind D-Tent. He squinted, and inspection revealed a piece of wood, or cardboard, with a capital 'D' and a '2.'

_'D2?'_ he said to himself, _'Why is there another tent? Come to think of it, Mr. Pendanski never said _how many_ new campers there were . . .' _

As he stood in front of the tent, something that astonished him even more than the sight of a new tent made it's appearance. From the second tent, six girls - - six girls - - along with one guy, emerged. Zero felt his eyes widen in surprise. He couldn't even remember the last time he had been up close with a girl his age . . .

All six of the girls were fairly good-looking. There was a medium-tall punk-looking girl with short purple hair and small, black glasses. Standing beside her was another tall-ish girl with dark blonde hair. Next to her was the only guy, tall with blonde and red spiked hair. Next to him was a short girl with brown hair. Two girls were standing close to each other, each tall. The one with light brown hair pulled back into a ponytail was an inch or so taller then the other girl, who had wavy long goldish-blonde hair that frizzed out in some places. A little behind them was the shortest girl, with shiny black hair, and looked to be the youngest. All seven of the group were wearing the trademark orange jumpsuits, identifying them as indeed being the campers Mr. Pendanski had mentioned.

"Hi," said the girl with purple hair.

_*   *   * Back to present *   *   *_

Ever since Aly had broken the silence with that one single word, everyone instantly became silent, and the air around them was tense. The girls and Landis all looked at each other, than to Zero, than back at each other again. No one really expected Zero to answer. because not only was he known for his silent reputation, but his eyes were growing wider and rounder by the minute. In fairness to Zero, he recovered quickly, and actually acknowledged he had heard her.

"Hi," he whispered almost inaudibly. Mr. Pendanski really should have told him just how many campers there were, and mentioning the fact that almost all of them were girls in a desert full of guys would have been nice as well . . .

"Say something," Heather urged Elanna.

"What?! Why do I have to say something?!" Elanna whisper-shouted, suddenly becoming out-of-character by being shy.

"Because you're the outgoing one with the obsession with Zero, that's why!" Meta hissed quietly so that Zero wouldn't be able to hear, and she urged Elanna forwards.

" . . . "

" . . . "

". . . "

". . . "

"Now would probably be a good time to say something, wouldn't it?" Elanna said, mostly to Zero. Zero grinned slightly and looked away. Behind Elanna, the other Holes Posse Hangout members looked on expectantly.

"Are you part of D-Tent?" Elanna asked at the same time as Aly and Kate, who were all trying to put emphasis on making it look like they had never seen Zero before.

Normally, Zero wouldn't have answered a question like that and would have just kept his silence, but that didn't seem like the thing to do when all the girls were looking at him like that. So, he nodded yes.

"Oh, cool!" Elanna said, pretending to look like this was new information to her. "So, what's your name?"

Zero looked at his feet. "Are you all supposed to be the new campers for D-Tent?" he asked instead of answering. Normally, he didn't like asking questions. But seeing seven new campers at once, six of them girls, had definitely peaked his curiosity. He didn't think he'd mind them asking questions so much as long as his questions got answered, and boy did he have a lot of them . . .

"Um, yeah, we're the new campers," Relina muttered, also looking at her feet.

There was more silence, in which Meta again hissed not so quietly at Elanna to talk more. Blushing, she complied. 

"Um, if you want to come sit down, we can introduce ourselves and stuff . . . I mean, we might as well do it soon if we're gonna be in the same tent . . . I mean, we're gonna have to learn eventually . . . I mean . . . yeah, we'll explain . . . "

"Elanna . . . sweetie . . . you can stop talking now . . ." Kate spoke, grinning at the girl's embarrassment. 

"Yeah, I think I'll go in the tent. You guys can come if you want," she turned and walked into the tent. Literally. By mistake, she walked into the wall of the tent rather then through the flap. She bounced off the canvas and landed on her butt amidst laughter from the others.

" . . . ow . . . "

Zero was grinning. Maybe the new campers wouldn't be so bad, after all, they had all been reasonably nice to him so far and they seemed to be pretty fun. But he would still be careful, as you don't come to Camp Green Lake without a reason.

Kate pulled Elanna up from the dusty floor. Blushing like a tomato, Elanna walked straight into the tent without looking at Zero and collapsed on her cot. The other girls and Landis followed her in. Kate motioned to Zero, "Come, I promise we don't bite!"

Zero hesitated before following her in. He saw the blonde girl who had walked into the wall by accident was lying on her cot facing the wall. The smallest girl with black hair was pulling her arm.

"Come on, El, he laughed less then we did. It'll be fine." Groaning, Elanna allowed herself to be pulled up from her cot and moved to the other side of the tent, where Landis, Zero and the girls were sitting. Kate caught her eye and grinned at her, doing thumbs up and mouthing 'smooth move!'

"So, what's your name?" asked Aly.

Zero paused, uncertain what to say. "You can call me Zero," he mumbled.

"Oh, okay. Is that a nickname?" Heather asked, getting into the game.

"You could say that," he said uneasily. "What are your names?" ae asked quietly.

"My name's Alyssa. Call me Alyssa, Lyss, or Aly," said the girl with purple hair.

"I'm Heather," cried the girl with dark blonde hair, bounding next to Aly.

"I'm Relina," said Relina, almost as quietly as Zero himself.

"Meta," Meta grinned. "Nice to meet ya."

"The name's Landis. You can call me Landis. Call me Landex and die." Landis said simply. He took note of Zero's expression and realized that death threats were probably a little more unnerving whilst in a detention center. "Just kidding," he added lamely.

"Hey. I'm Kate. Welcome to our happy little tent. Well, actually, we're the newcomers here, but I'm sure you get the point." Kate grinned madly.

" . . . ."

"The Walking Catastrophe over here is Elanna," said Landis, motioning to the still crimson blonde. "Really, she's not normally this quiet. She never shuts up usually."

Elanna glared at Landis. "Yes, and I'm sure you'd be talking a mile a minute after walking into a wall by accident on your first impression with someone you've never met! Anyways . . . yeah, I'm Elanna. Nice to meet you, Zero," she extended a hand for him to shake. Zero stared at it. Elanna winced. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, starting to draw her hand back in. 

"No, it's okay. It's just not that many people have ever talked to me so . . . nicely . . . before," he said before shaking her hand. He shook everyone else's hands as well.

"So, do you all know each other or something?"

"Um, kind of." Heather answered uneasily.

"Um . . . how did all seven of you get into Camp Green Lake at once? Especially you girls? This place is supposed to be for guys . . . " Zero was surprised by how curious he was.

"Well, see, we were in the desert, and Kate here collapsed, so we went to the nearest building, which was this place, to get her some water and stuff. The Warden gave us the food and water, but when we told her we were in the desert because the plane we were flying on to go to Austin crashed, she didn't believe us. She said we were trespassing on her private property, and that we were pathological liars because we had lied to people who had just saved our lives. So she says we have to serve time here because of it, our 'delinquent tendencies' as she called them. That's why we're all here, and serving time even though this place is for guys." Aly said all of this very quickly, hoping that if she said it quick enough, her face wouldn't betray the lie. 

"A plane crash?" 

Aly felt uneasy under his gaze. It was so real, not at all like just looking at a picture of Zero's eyes. She didn't answer. Instead, she asked what he had done to get into Camp Green Lake.

Zero at once felt uncomfortable. He couldn't tell them the whole truth, but he felt he couldn't lie to them either . . . "I stole a pair of shoes," he mumbled, looking away from all of them.

"Shoes?"

"I won't talk about your plane crash, and you won't talk about the shoes, okay?" Zero asked quickly, almost panicky.

"Deal."

"So, all of you are in D-Tent?" Again, Zero was surprised by the number of questions he had, and  by how much he had talked in the past twenty minutes, but he figured that the new group definitely merited some curiosity.

"Yeah. The Warden said we were all supposed to be in D-Tent."

"But you wouldn't all fit in our tent, plus girls can't stay in the same tent as guys. Is that why they set up a new tent?"

Elanna looked at him. "Wow, you're a smart kid," she remarked. Zero blushed, unused to hearing that from anyone but Stanley. "Thanks," he murmured as the others echoed their agreement.

"Technically Landex here will be staying in your tent with you guys, they put in an extra cot. But we're all in D-Tent. We're D2!" Aly yelled happily. The others nodded enthusiastically. 

"Well, I'll see you guys later. I have to shower, you know? The other guys should be back soon. You should talk to my friend Stanley, I think he'll like you all. Later," Zero walked out of the tent.

Elanna immediately collapsed. "That was the most humiliating moment of my life. The guy I like most watched me totally embarrass myself, before I even met him properly! Ugggggh!" She griped.

Kate grinned. "I think you recovered well, for someone who walked into a wall. He shook your hand at least!"

Elanna shook her head. "He shook your hands too."

"Well, I think he liked us. He talked to us, at least!" Meta smiled happily, doing a mini-jig with Relina.

"He thinks I'm a moron," Elanna said absent-mindedly.

"You are a moron," Landis sniggered. Heather hit him.

"Dude, you did fine." Kate said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We know he likes us. Give it time."

_*   *   * Out in the desert *   *   *_

"Come on, Caveman!" Magnet yelled. "Hurry up, man!"

Magnet, Zigzag, Squid, X-Ray, and Armpit stood over Stanley's hole. For once the five had finished within a few minutes of each other, and decided to wait for Stanley, who still had a few more inches to dig.

"Dig that hole!" Zigzag cheered. 

"Shut up, Zig." Squid muttered, squinting against the sun's glare. "And get your ass digging, Caveman, we ain't got all day!"

"I'm digging, I'm digging." Stanley grunted as he measured his hole with his stick. The other boys had been waiting for about fifteen minutes, the time since Armpit had finished digging. 

"One of these days we're going to start smelling burning flesh."

'"Shut up, Zig." Squid groaned.

"Done!" Stanley cried, climbing out of his hole and spitting in it. 

"Good going, man." Armpit said, punching him on the shoulder. 

"Lets just get back and outta the sun." X-Ray said, wiping his dirty glasses on his orange jumpsuit to no effect.

D-Tent started to walk back, passing other random groups of boys digging their holes. They seemed to be one of the first ones done. 

As they neared the camp, they saw Mr. Pendanski running towards them.

"What's Mom want?" Armpit asked.

"Dunno," X-Ray said. 

Mr. Pendanski reached them and put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.

"Yo, where's the fire?" Magnet asked, raising an eyebrow at Pendanski.

"There are new campers. They'll be sharing your tent." Mr. Pendanki said when he could breathe again. For a 'counselor,' Pendanski didn't seem to be that well in shape. 

"Camper-s? Plural? Exactly how many?" X-Ray said quickly. 

"Yeah, D-Tent ain't that big ya know." Squid agreed.

"Seven." Mr. Pendanski said, and when he saw their eyes widen, he added quickly, "Six will be sleeping in a different tent marked D2, so only one more cot will be in your tent, Alan."

"Holy shi-" 

"Language, Alan." 

"Whatever. But why so many newbies?" Squid asked.

"That's up to the Warden." Mr. Pendanski said promptly, and turned and walked towards the Warden's cabin.

"Well, that was interesting." Stanley said, staring after Pendanski.

X-ray nodded. "Come on, lets go see what's up with the new guys."

After placing their shovels into the 'Library', they slowly walked back to their tent. 

"D2?" Armpit asked.

"Must be the new tent." Zigzag said,

"Original." Stanley commented, rolling his eyes.

As they got closer, they saw the flap open. A tall boy with spiked blonde and red hair stuck his head out, and then quickly pulled it back in again. 

_*   *   * In the tent *   *   *_

"THE REST OF D-TENT'S HERE!" Landis managed to yell quietly in a loud stage whisper to the occupants of the D2-Tent. Six heads shot up, and rushed to the entrance to file out as they had for the 'welcome' of Zero. 'Awkward silence' would probably have been the better term.

The original D-Tent's eyes all widened automatically as the one boy and six girls filed out. 

"G-g-g-girls!" Zigzag stuttered, his eyes wide and staring at the females.

"No, really?" X-Ray said sarcastically, but he too was staring with wide eyes. 

The 'welcoming silence' commenced yet again as the two groups stared at each other. This time it was the D-Tent party that broke the silence.

"Well, this was unexpected." Armpit grunted. 

Everyone looked at Elanna again, but she glanced at the wall of the tent and shook her head frantically. Kate rolled her eyes and stepped forwards.

"Hi. Thanks for the rather enthralling welcome." Kate said. "It was, er, invigorating." 

"Kate, remind me to make you work on your adjectives." Aly groaned.

"ANYWAY," Kate continued, with a glare at Aly, "Let me introduce ourselves." She walked down the group of girls and the guy, and pointed to each one in turn.

"This is Alyssa, AKA Aly and Lyss; this is Elanna, the crazy one." Here she paused as Elanna glared at her, obviously not happy with her introduction. Kate ignored her. "This is Landis, our only guy member, poor soul; this is Relina, also Rel and other variations; this is Heather; and this is Meta." She stopped, the fact she was actually TALKING to the D-Tent boys finally kicking in, and she grew pale again and blinked.

"And that's Kate, the other strange one." Meta added, pulling Kate back and whispering in her ear, "Are you okay?" Kate nodded, and smiled. 

X-Rays leader instincts kicked in again, and he stepped forwards. 

"I'm X-Ray. We're the rest of D-Tent. We just weren't expecting girls, this is a boys' camp after all." X-Ray said. The girls (and boy) nodded. 

"Magnet."

"Squid." 

"Zigzag."

"Armpit."

"Caveman."

The newcomers smiled in welcome, each trying to look like they had never met the boys standing in front of them before.

Aly stared at Magnet, succumbing to the Hispanic cuteness once again. "What's with the names?" she asked for something to say.

"Nicknames." X-Ray said. "You'll all get one, eventually."

"Sweet." Relina commented.

"So now what do we do?" Meta asked, shielding her eyes against the sun. 

"Wanna come to the Wreck Room?" Magnet asked.

"Sure." Landis said, and the girls nodded.

With that, thirteen of the members of D-Tent walked towards the Wreck Room.

Heather couldn't keep a massive grin from her face as she plodded along beside Landis on the way to the wreck room. "Nicknames," she murmured to Landis, fighting a happy sigh, "the D-Tent boys are actually going to give us nicknames.... "

"As long as it's nothing like Barf Bag," Landis mumbled cryptically, erasing the blissful look from Heather's face and causing her to continue on in silence the remainder of the short walk to the Wreck Room.

"So this is the Wreck Room?" Elanna asked casually.

"Yup. The one and only," X-Ray responded. Zigzag took his usual spot in front of the broken TV and began his ritual of staring at it intently.

"Ah ... what's with him?" Kate asked. The other D-Tent members shrugged.

Landis rubbed his forehead as he listened to the conversations that were taking place around him. This was definitely going to test his sanity.

Kate and Elanna turned and grinned at each other, then plopped down on either side of Zigzag to stare at the broken TV. Zigzag looked slightly surprised, then a bit nervous at having two girls close to him in who know how many months, then he smiled and stared at the TV again. Behind Zigzag's head, Kate winked at Elanna. The side of her mouth quirked up, and all three stared in silence. 

X-Ray, Squid, and Armpit took up pool sticks, and Landis and Heather stood and watched them play on the tattered surface of the pool table. Relina and Meta sat against the wall, watching the boys play pool also. The boys were obviously showing off to their audience, much to Landis' amusement. Aly sat next to Magnet on a large chair, and was having an animated conversation with him about music. 

Stanley and Zero sat in fluffy chairs talking quietly, and the newcomers knew they were having reading lessons, Stanley most likely spelling out words for Zero to figure out. 

None of the newcomers or D-Tent boys realized that the rest of the Wreck Room's occupants were staring at them, mostly at the girls. Well, what could you expect at an all-boys camp? 

_*   *   * At the Warden's cabin *   *   *_

"Well?"

"They've got a tent, ma'am, and all the original D-Tent has met them." Mr. Pendanski told the Warden.

"Have they been accepted?" 

"Yes, well, they don't have their quaint little nicknames yet, but those will come in time." he said.

The warden smiled. "Good, all according to plan."

_*   *   * Back at the Wreck Room *   *   *_

After a few silent minutes of Elanna, Kate, and Zigzag all staring at the broken television set, Elanna finally decided to break the silence. 

"So . . . You're Zigzag, is that right?"

"Yeah."

"Nice nickname," Kate commented.

"Um, thanks," Zigzag replied, reddening slightly at the female attention he was getting.

"How did you get it?" Elanna asked, genuinely curious this time, as she didn't believe it had ever been mentioned in either of the books, original _or_ survival guide.

"My hair. It always stands up like this like I've electrocuted or something. They were gonna name me 'Lightning' but 'Zigzag' sounds cooler."

"Indeed," Kate giggled, while Elanna nodded, both interested and impressed, and perhaps wondering if she would get a nickname rivalling some of her own in weirdness. 

Kate tilted her head and gave Zigzag a sideways look as he continued to look at the TV. "Does the TV work?" she asked curiously.

"No," Zigzag responded without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Um . . . Is it okay for me to ask why you're watching the screen then?" Kate asked cautiously.

Zigzag took his eyes off the TV for a moment. Kate winced and moved away slightly, wondering if he might attack her or something. Zigzag noticed and smiled slightly.

"That's an interesting question . . . do you mind if I tell you something?"

""Go ahead,"" the girls echoed.

"A lot of people ask me _what _I'm doing, so I tell them and they think I'm crazy for it. But no one has ever asked _why_, and maybe if they did, they'd understand me a bit better."

"Wow, that's really deep," Elanna commented.

"Anyways, I look at the TV a lot, mostly just to think and clear my head, you know? It's like when you zone out, and you're staring at something without even knowing 'cause you're thinking so hard. And I sit here because I like it here, and not too many people bother me."

"So that's good, right? But if you told them that, why do they still think you're crazy?" Kate asked. 

"Beats me," Zigzag shrugged. "They also think I'm paranoid, but they'll come around when they realize the lizards really are the leaders behind this operation."

Zigzag said this so seriously that Kate and Elanna didn't dare argue. 

"Besides, I don't care what they think. I can fight 'em if want," Zigzag said suddenly, obviously trying to make it sound like he fought often, as though to impress the girls. Kate and Elanna both grinned.

"Wicked."

While Kate and Elanna were over chilling with Zigzag by the television, X-Ray, Squid and Armpit were all playing pool, as Heather, Landis, Meta, and Relina all watched with interest. It was obvious (at least to Heather, Landis, and Meta as they were familiar with testosterone-pumped high-school males) that each of the boys were playing to the best of their effort because of their audience.

The pool table had obviously been at the camp for a long time, for there were several initial carvings all over it, even on the flat green felt surface, which therefore caused many bumps. Unfortunately, one pair of letters carved into the table, T.C., specifically, disrupted Armpit's careful shot and sent the ball veering off to the left of where he had been aiming at. 

Squid grabbed the pool stick from Armpit. "Lousy luck."

Armpit grabbed it back. "Hey man, that shot was gonna bag me the win. It don't count if the ball goes off course 'cause of some lousy bump on the table!"

"Hey, not my problem, Pit!" Squid grunted, grabbing at the pool stick again. X-Ray raised an eyebrow, waiting patiently for them to resolve it so they could get on with the game.

"Do they always act like that?" Meta asked X-Ray in amusement.

"Occasionally, but I think they're trying to look tough mainly because of you ladies," X-Ray replied, grinning at her.

"That's great, I feel so special," Heather commented dryly while Landis snorted in laughter. Heather, Relina, and Meta all punched him. X-Ray laughed out loud at the sight.

"What?" Relina asked, grinning.

"It's just good to see girls again, you know? Not that we're gonna try anything if you don't want us to," X-Ray added as he looked at their expressions. "Us guys from D-Tent, we're good guys, and a whole lot better then some of the other people here. Besides, D-Tent's like family, and we stick together. That's gonna mean you girls too, you know."

"Ew, incest!" Meta joked. X-Ray burst out laughing. "Not like that!" He protested, smiling.

Landis rolled eyes and punched Heather lightly on the shoulder. "They're still fighting over the last shot," he commented. Heather rolled her eyes as well.

"Hey, dudes!" She called. Armpit and Squid both looked up at her, while X-Ray, Meta, and Relina looked on in interest. "Why don't you play rock-paper-scissors for the next shot or something? Or call a number?"

Armpit and Squid both looked at each and nodded. "Pick a number and tell X, a'ight?" Squid said.

"Sure." Heather thought, and decided on the number fifty-seven. She leaned over and whispered her chosen number to X-Ray.

"'Kay, guys, the number's between one and a hundred, closest wins. You can go first, Pit." X-Ray spoke. 

"Twenty-nine," called Armpit.

"Forty-six," Squid guessed.

Heather pointed to Squid. "Squid's closest, the number was fifty-seven. Sorry, Armpit," she said while X-Ray nodded his agreement. 

Armpit grumbled but gave the pool stick grudgingly to Squid, who promptly shot it, where it scattered a few balls, but not all. X-Ray moved in to take his turn, while Relina, Meta, and Heather cheered and called good shot. Squid took a couple of fake bows before Armpit pretended to clobber him. The girls watched on in amusement.

There was a large chair that seemed more like couch that was resting closest to the hole in wall where the fan rested, providing cheap ventilation, and Aly and Magnet were sitting on that chair having an animated conversation.

"So what kind of music do you like?" Magnet was asking.

"Well, I practically worship Matchbox Twenty, if that counts. I also dig Linkin Park, Maroon 5 and AFI among others. What do you like?"

Magnet shrugged. "I like some rap, and some rock, it depends mostly on the song or artist, you know? I've burnt some interesting CDs though, with that combination!" he laughed.

"Wicked, wicked. You're Hispanic, right?" Aly asked, grinning slightly because she knew already. You couldn't be the Hispanic Buddy without being Hispanic, after all.

"Si, chica," Magnet grinned. 

"Cool, cool. Would you mind terribly if I called you the Hispanic Buddy sometimes?"

"I guess not, but try to call me Magnet around the other guys, they might laugh or get angry or something. Besides, you'll get a nickname soon too, so I can taunt you with that," Magnet grinned cheekily. Aly grinned back. "Just don't call me by my real name," he added.

"Why, what's your real name?" 'As if I don't know,' Aly thought to herself.

"José," Magnet said with a funny expression.

"And how did Magnet come from José?" Aly laughed.

"'Cause I'm the best thief in this camp; my fingers are like little magnets!"

"You got busted and taken here for stealing."

"That's right."

"Well, if you get busted, it obviously means you're not the best thief, doesn't it?!" Aly laughed and shoved him playfully. 

"Hey, I got busted doing a good thing! I love animals, and one day I was passing by this pet shop and I saw this poor little puppy in a metal cage, hardly any blankets! I had to rescue it, and I would have made it out if my pocket didn't start barking!" Magnet protested, laughing a bit.

"Hey, that's awesome!" Aly grinned, again, before giving him a high five.

"How did you all get busted?"

"That's kinda a long story. I'll tell you sometime."

Kate and Elanna were still sitting beside Zigzag, staring at the broken TV. Elanna leaned backwards and tugged on Kate's sleeve to get her attention.

"Let's go talk to Caveman, we haven't spoken to him yet."

Kate giggled. "I kinda like it here," she motioned to Zigzag, who was still sitting beside her.

"Fine, you stay here, but I want to get to know all the D-Tent guys."

"Have fun, and don't embarrass yourself."

"Don't talk about that, and besides, Zero's there. We can all talk about stuff."

Kate perked up. "All right, you've got me convinced." She stood up and helped Elanna to her feet as well. Elanna poked Zigzag in the shoulder. "Do you mind if we go get to know the rest of D-Tent?" she asked.

"Nope. Have fun, I'll just watch TV. Maybe if I stare at it hard enough, the aliens will be nice enough it working again . . ."

Elanna and Kate made their way through the Wreck Room, which was very slowly starting to fill up with other campers done with their holes. They wound their way over to the under-stuffed but still somewhat poofy couch that Stanley and Zero were residing on.

"Talk," Kate grinned and pushed Elanna forward.

"Not this again," Elanna groaned. "Hey, do you mind if we sit with you guys? We're trying to go around and get to know everyone in D-Tent," she said to Stanley.

Stanley smiled up at her. "Sure," he said, moving over for them. "We haven't really introduced ourselves formally, have we?"

Elanna and Kate both smiled at him. He was just too nice for his own good, and very warm-hearted. No wonder Zero had been drawn to him of all people. 

"Not really," Kate said, her mouth quirking into a smile. "As you can see, everyone else is already familiarizing themselves with you guys. We've only really spoken to Zigzag and Zero here," she waved at Zero. Zero smiled slightly and looked away.

"I'm Elanna, and this is Kate," Elanna said. It was really easy to talk to Stanley, she noticed, and she smiled at the thought.

"I'm Caveman, but I don't mind if you call by my real name. So, yeah. You can call me Caveman or Stanley."

"My friend's middle name is Stanley," Elanna commented randomly.

"That's . . . great, sweetie . . ." Kate said, raising an eyebrow.

Elanna blushed. "Sorry, random moment. I do that sometimes." She noticed Stanley looked uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" She asked concernedly, hoping she hadn't scared him or anything.

"Oh, nothing. It's just . . . um, well, girls don't usually like me," he blurted.

"Why?" The girls asked. Zero shoved Stanley lightly. "Sure they do," he said.

"I don't know, they just don't."

"Well, I like you," Elanna said a little loudly, but not enough to disturb anyone. "You're nice, and how many nice people do you find in a detention camp? I'm glad you two are in my tent!"

Stanley and Zero both blushed. 

"So," Stanley began, "Zero was telling me about your gracefulness."

Zero reddened when Elanna set her gaze on him. She turned to Kate and Stanley, who were both chuckling. "Ha ha. Really, I don't usually do that. I've taken ballet for ten years, so I can be graceful when I want to. My brother's the nutcase who walks into walls, usually on purpose."

Stanley laughed while Zero smiled, an actual smile. Kate was sighing. "Hahah, I remember your brother. Crazy genes," she joked.

"Indeed," commented Elanna dryly. "Actually, I'm hungry. What time do we have dinner at?"

"Not for a bit," said Meta, who had just walked over with Heather and Relina. "X-Ray told us."

"Weren't you watching their pool game?" asked Kate.

"Yeah, but then we got bored. What do you guys want to do?" asked Relina. Elanna, Heather, Kate, Stanley and Zero all looked around at each other.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Notes: Thanks for reading!  Please review; it would make us all very happy!  Feel free to ask any questions you might have about us or the story, and we'll make sure to answer them in the next chapter's A/Ns.  

~Editing and Author's Notes done by Elanna and Kate


	3. Intesting Activities

Author's Notes:  Yeah, we're back.  Hey, no running away screaming in terror!  *The Holes Posse watches amused as the random reader people slowly trail back towards their computers*  Yeah, that's it.  Be good little reader people.  Ahem.  

Okay, this is the third chapter.  We have many more chapters written so far, and it just keeps coming!  So keep on your toes for more updates!

Thank you for all your reviews! They mean a lot to us, really. And now to answer them:

Hannah:  Thanks for the review; we're glad you liked it!

Shae Elven Heart:  Hey Shea!  Keep reading! (And reviewing!!)

Tootsie87:  Unique……… Well, that's one way to put it. Haha.  Well, I think this chapter is long………24 pages on word………have fun!  Thanks Kelly!

Grab Bag:  Hey, now you get a sneak preview at our site!  _ No fair for all the other readers! Haha, just joking.  Yeah, we have some awesome writers putting together this fic, also, Kate and Elanna did some editing before we posted this, to make the different sections run together a bit more smoothly.  We're glad you're enjoying it!  

Silvereyes:  For more information, just give us an email! If your really interested in joining, we could send you the link, and answer any questions you have.  Thanks for your wonderful praise!  We look forward to your Holes fic, when you get around to writing one!

Stacia:  Hi Meta's friend!  Thanks for reading our fic!  Keep spreading the holes love!  

I think that's all the reviews! Thanks guys! Don't forget to send us your thoughts or comments about this chapter, also!

Oh, a warning. This chapter contains some slightly older material.  If it offends you, you have our apologies.  Don't worry though, there isn't anything too graphic or obscene.  Just a little drama!

Enjoy the chapter!

~*~*~*~*~

Relina, Elanna, Heather, Kate, Meta, Stanley, and Zero all looked at each other.   
  
"We could . . . have . . . a talent show!" Meta said, half joking. No one else picked up on her sarcasm, though.   
  
"Are you kidding?" "What?" "How the hell would we do that?" came the chorus of replies.   
  
"Jeez. I was kidding." Meta sighed.   
  
"I have an idea . . ." Kate stated. "Maybe we shouldn't though . . ." she trailed off.   
  
The rest of the group looked at her quizzically. Kate shifted uncomfortably for a few seconds before she spoke.   
  
"Okay. I'll tell Heather, and if she thinks its a good idea, then I'll tell you, but if she doesn't then I won't."   
  
"Um . . . okay . . .?" Heather said. The rest of the group was a little confused. Kate leaned over to Heather, cupped her hands around Heather's ear, and whispered very quietly. The rest of the group strained to hear what she was saying. A few seconds later, Heather jumped away from Kate and exclaimed "OH MY GOD! KATE! THAT'S A GREAT IDEA! Why did you not want to tell us?!"   
  
"I don't know. It seemed kinda stupid," Kate said embarrassedly.   
  
"Okay, everyone." Heather said. "We are gonna play – " She did a little 'drum roll' on her thighs, "– Truth or Dare."   
  
Chaos broke out. All the girls squealed at the prospect of playing Truth or Dare with Stanley and Zero. The boys however looked at each other, a little apprehensive, as neither of them had ever really talked to a girl, much less play the famed teenage game of Truth or Dare.   
  
"Okay, everyone . . . CALM DOWN!" Relina yelled over the havoc. The rest of the girls quieted. "Who's gonna go first?"   
  
At this, the boys seemed to shrink even more into their seats. Elanna said "I WILL, I WILL!!!" at the top of her lungs, so she was elected to begin.   
  
"So, Zero, " she began calmly. "Truth or Dare?"   
  
Zero's eyes widened.   
  
Stanley laughed and gave him a playful shove, but you could tell he was almost collapsing from relief at not being picked.   
  
"Wh-what?" He asked.   
  
Everybody stared at him, and then realization dawned on Kate. "Zero, you haven't played Truth or Dare before, have you?" she asked quietly, not insulting or woundingly, but just stating a fact. He shook his head. Kate smiled in a benign friendly fashion, and got up to move beside him. She plopped down, and turned towards him. She proceeded to explain the game to him.   
  
"The first person, AKA Elanna, picks someone else, AKA you, and asks them 'truth or dare.' The second person picks one or the other. If they pick truth, the first person asks a question, and the second person has to answer truthfully. If they pick dare, the first person dares them to do something. Get it?" she asked. Zero nodded. Kate stared at him.   
  
"Wow, you're a smart kid. You got that? Man, and I'm horrible at explaining things, too." she exclaimed. Zero smiled and blushed. Kate grinned.   
  
"So, which one is it, Zee?" Elanna asked.   
  
"Zee?" Heather asked, raising her eyebrows.   
  
"The hell?" Kate laughed, knowing full well what Elanna was on about now, but finding it hilarious all the same.   
  
"Zero! It starts with a 'Z!'" Elanna said brightly. "So I called him Zee. Is that not allowed or something? You don't mind, do you Zero?"   
  
Zero shook his head. Stanley laughed again.   
  
"So yeah. Which one, Zero?" Meta asked.   
  
"Yeah!" Relina yelled.   
  
Aly heard Relina's yell, and looked up from her conversation with Magnet. "What are you all going on about now?"   
  
"We're playing Truth or Dare, you and Magnet wanna play?" Heather asked.   
  
"I will!" Aly said happily. She turned to Magnet. "How about you?"   
  
"Sure, why not?" Magnet said.   
  
"Hey Kate, should we ask the rest of D-Tent?" Elanna asked.   
  
"Yeah!" Kate said excitedly.   
  
"Maybe we should go back to the tent, we might get a crowd watching us or something, besides, there'll be more room." Stanley suggested.   
  
"Good idea, Caveman!" Meta said, smiling. Stanley blushed.   
  
The group got up and made their way over to the pool table.   
  
"Hey guys!" Relina said brightly. Kate waved.   
  
"Hello, girls," X-Ray said politely.   
  
"What are we, chopped meat?" Stanley asked jokingly.   
  
"Yes, yes you are," Kate laughed. At the look on Stanley's face, she hugged him. "Aw! I was just kidding, hun!"   
  
Armpit whistled, and the rest of the group laughed. "Oh shut up," Kate said, blushing. Stanley just looked like he ran into a brick wall.   
  
"We're going to the tent to play Truth or Dare, you guys want to come?" Meta asked.   
  
"Wouldn't miss it," Squid said, nodding.   
  
"I'm in," X-Ray said.   
  
"'Kay," said Armpit.   
  
"Oh god Heather, it was you who suggested this, wasn't it?" Landis groaned.   
  
"Actually, it was Kate," Heather said, pointing to the girl, who rolled her eyes. "You said it was a good idea!" Kate exclaimed.   
  
"It was, it was. You don't know how boring it is without girls here," X-Ray said.   
  
Elanna suddenly started to giggle.   
  
"What now?" Aly said exasperatedly.   
  
"The thought of seven guys playing Truth or Dare."   
  
This reduced all of D-Tent to laughter, making them receive stares from other tents as they headed towards the door of the Wreck Room.   
  
"Dammit!" Kate said suddenly, slapping her forehead. "We forgot Zig!"   
  
"Come on, Kate!" Meta said with a grin, and the two girls pushed through the crowded Wreck Room towards Zigzag. Sitting down on either side of him, they each grabbed an arm and hauled him to his feet.   
  
"Uh, girls? Where are we going?" Zigzag asked sheepishly as he was pushed through the crowd.   
  
"Truth or Dare." Kate said.   
  
"D-Tent." Meta added.   
  
"'Nough said." Kate finished.   
  
All of a sudden, Kate and Meta were pushed to the ground, hard, and Zigzag was being held by two boys from B-Tent.   
  
"What do we have here?" None other then Thlump asked, walking forward in a little circle of space that had appeared. Kate and Meta jumped to their feet.   
  
"I'm Meta and this is Kate. We're new campers in D-Tent." Meta whispered, glaring at Thlump. "And who are you?"   
  
"Doesn't matter," he sneered, and walking forward, touched the two girls' chests with his hands.   
  
"GET OFF, YOU PERVERT!" Kate yelled. Arms grabbed the two girls from behind, and Thlump walked forward.   
  
"We're going to have a very . . . . interesting . . . . time with girls at camp," he said softly, looking the girls up and down.   
  
"Get away from them!" Zigzag yelled, trying uselessly to get away from the two large boys holding him.   
  
"Aw, protecting your girlfriends, are you?"   
  
"Fuck off," Meta said.   
  
Suddenly, as Thlump reached towards Kate because she was closer, Kate started screaming at the top of her lungs.   
  
"X! SQUID! MAGNET! ARMPIT! CAVEMAN! ZERO! ALY! ELANNA! RELLE! LANDIS! HEATHER!"   
  
Meta caught her drift, and started yelling too as Thlump punched Kate across the face to shut her up.   
  
"Shut up, bitch!"   
  
"X! SQUID! MAG-"   
  
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" X-Ray shouted, as D-Tent pushed their way into the circle, and Squid and Landis backed Thlump up against the wall. Armpit, Aly, and Heather pushed the guys away from Zigzag, and Magnet, Stanley, Zero, Elanna, and Relina released Meta and Kate.   
  
"Don't any of you even THINK of touching one of the girls again, or you'll have to mess with one of us," X-Ray told the whole Wreck Room, and D-Tent left quickly. As soon as they practically jogged to the tent, everyone bombarded Kate, Meta, and Zigzag about what happened.   
  
"Kate, Meta, I'm so sorry," Zigzag said suddenly.   
  
"Why?" Meta whispered.   
  
"I shouldn't have let them gotten to you, I should have fought them."   
  
"Ziggy, you tried. There were two frikking guys holding you. There was no way for you to get away, Meta and I both know that," Kate said quietly, smiling at Zigzag.   
  
"What happened, anyway?" Elanna asked, sitting beside Kate. Kate sighed.   
  
"Horny teenage boys," Meta said, shrugging. Kate snorted.   
  
"Idiots. Like they would have gotten away with it."   
  
"With WHAT?" Relina asked, annoyed.   
  
"Come on guys, we've got a general idea about what happened, but can you give us any details?" Aly asked.   
  
Meta shrugged. "We were coming back after getting Zig and Kate and I were pushed to the ground. That . . . . kid, the big one that you were talking to, X, started talking to us."   
  
"He touched their boobs!" Zigzag said with wide eyes.   
  
"He did WHAT?" Stanley spluttered.   
  
"Felt us up." Kate confirmed. She crossed her arms protectively. There was a red mark forming on her cheek.   
  
"Bastards." Squid whispered.   
  
"OH MY GOD!" Elanna squealed.   
  
"Then what happened?" X-Ray asked.   
  
"Well, because I was closer, and I'm pretty sure he intended to do it to Meta too, he touched me more . . . let me just say . . . overally." She finished, looking away. Great, now they would think she was a slut, or 'easy' or something. All of which were extremely untrue, but none of which she wanted the famed 'D-Tent boys' thinking. Oh god, they all probably thought she was a whore now . . .   
  
"And she started screaming for you guys at the top of her lungs," Meta said. "I joined in, but he slapped Kate across the face. That's when you guys got there."   
  
"Took long enough," Zigzag said, glaring at X-Ray.   
  
"Why does everything happen to me?!?" Kate yelled.   
  
"You're just lucky, hun," Elanna said, giving Kate a sort of half hug.   
  
"Okay, from now on, none of you girls are going anywhere alone, at least not for the first while. Agreed?" D-Tent nodded. It seemed X-Ray was still the unanimous leader of D-Tent, 1 and 2.   
  
"So where were we in Truth and Dare?" Heather asked, and Landis groaned.   
  
"I was asking Zero truth or Dare!" Elanna yelled.   
  
"You got Zero to play?" Squid asked, amazed.   
  
"Man, why is it only the new people who can get the kid to talk?" Armpit asked.   
  
"You have to ask the right questions," Zero said.   
  
The original D-Tent save Stanley stared at him.   
  
"Okaaay, who are you, and what have you done with Zero?" Magnet asked, but he smiled.   
  
"Well, which one is it?" Stanley asked Zero.   
  
Zero shifted on his cot. He thought for a few moments, and then said, hesitating a little, "Dare." Though he had never played, he had heard that the Truth questions were stupid (and, as we know, Zero doesn't like answering stupid questions).   
  
"Um . . . " Elanna began. "I dare you . . .  to . . . uh . . . lick . . . Stanley's foot."   
  
"What the hell?!" Kate exclaimed. "Where did THAT come from?"   
  
"I don't know . . . " Elanna blushed.   
  
The rest of the girls were laughing, the D-Tent boys were looking at them like they were crazy, and Landis looked thoroughly confused.   
  
Stanley proceeded to take off his shoe and sock from his right foot.   
  
"EWW! STANLEY! I CAN SMELL YOUR FEET FROM HERE!!!" Aly yelled, causing everyone else to jump in surprise.   
  
"Aly, are you on crack? I'm sitting closer to him, and even I can't – " Meta stopped suddenly. "Wait; never mind. Yes I can."   
  
Zero plugged his nose; it could not be denied that Stanley's feet stunk. But then again, what could you expect? He had just been out in the desert digging! Zero then hastily licked his best friend's foot. Immediately, he rushed outside to get a drink from the spigot. The rest of the tent was in hysterics by the time he got back, save Stanley, who was using his sock to wipe Zero's spit off his foot.   
  
"That was just gross," Zero declared.   
  
"Not grosser then Armpit after he's done diggin'!" Magnet exclaimed.   
  
"An' I'm not as gross as them damn BEANS they serve day and night here!" Armpit retorted.   
  
"I think he's got you on that one," X-Ray said, to end the discussion.   
  
"Okay, Zero, your turn to pick someone." Meta reminded him.   
  
"Okay." He said, somewhat shyly. He wasn't used to this many people talking to him at one, and the fact that half of them were girls didn't really help.    
  
"Stanley, truth or dare?" Zero asked, not really knowing who else to pick.   
  
"Hmm . . . " Stanley thought for a moment. He didn't really think Zero would embarrass him that much, but then again, the small boy had just been forced to lick his foot after a hard day's digging, so who knew what kind of things he could think up? Not feeling like being forced to answer embarrassing questions in front of a female audience, the word, "Dare," popped out of his mouth before he could think about it properly. Instantly, he wondered whether he'd regret saying that . . .   
  
Zero wrinkled his face in disgust. "I should think of something good because of my dare. I could hardly tell whether you've showered or not!"   
  
Everyone in the tent, save Stanley, burst into peals of laughter. Zero, ever the shy one, blushed at the response he had received. First talking, then having people laugh with him; who knew what could come next?   
  
Elanna was almost crying from laughing so hard. "I'm sorry about that, Zero, really. It was a spur of the moment type thing," she giggled, trying to keep a straight face.   
  
Stanley just sat quietly, awaiting his fate with a slight smile on his face.   
  
Zero sat still, his brow furrowed with concentration as he tried to think of a suitable dare.   
  
"Anyone got any ideas for Zero here?" Squid asked, his mouth quirking into a smirk.   
  
Aly grinned mischievously. "Several, though a lot of them probably wouldn't be great for people who don't play this game often . . . !" Heather grinned and batted her friend on the arm, as Stanley reddened.   
  
"Make him sing? Dance? Gymnastics?" Relina suggested.   
  
Zero looked up, his eyes brightening. "I like that one, singing. Okay Stanley, I dare you to sing part of a song . . . and . . . you have to make it up right now!"   
  
Stanley groaned and drooped over, while X-Ray raised an eyebrow. "A singing Caveman, eh? All right then . . . "   
  
"C'mon, don't make me sing, man!" he cried.   
  
Zero just shook his head and pinched his nose shut, grinning slightly. Again, everyone in the tent collapsed in laughter.   
  
"Okay, sing!" Zigzag said pointedly.   
  
"Hey, give him five minutes to think something up!" Kate chided.   
  
"Five minutes, I'm timing," grinned Meta. "Go over there and think something up."   
  
"Does it have to be a song? Like, can I make it a rap? Those are easier," Stanley pouted slightly.   
  
"Eh," was all Landis replied. Stanley took that as an okay, and moved to the corner of the tent. The rest of D-Tent, as well as the girls and Landis, all started to chatter once they saw that Stanley had begun to compose his 'masterpiece.'   
  
"This should be good," Magnet sniggered.   
  
"Good job, Zero," Aly grinned enthusiastically. "Way to embarrass the Caveman!"   
  
Zero just looked away and grinned slightly - surprised he could be receiving compliments from anyone but Stanley. Not that he actually expected a compliment from Stanley in this particular situation . . .   
  
Armpit was talking energetically. "I think it would have been funny to see his face if we forced him and one of the girls to kiss or something!" he said loudly. Unexpectedly, silence fell, the happy mood that had just been present deteriorating rapidly. Kate and Meta, each who had been in deep conversation with Relina, Aly, Heather, and Elanna, looked away slightly, eyes downcast. Even Stanley fell silent.   
  
"Wrong thing to say, dude," Magnet whispered.   
  
Armpit's eyes went wide. "Oh shit . . . Sorry, I didn't mean like that, I didn't mean like Thlump . . ."   
  
Kate felt sick and disgusted at the mention of Thlump and what he had done, and was luckily prevented from doing. She saw that Meta's face reflected her own feelings.   
  
Suddenly, everyone was talking around them and comforting them; Stanley had come over, all the girls were huddled together and hugging Meta and Kate, and both Armpit and Zigzag were apologizing over and over again.   
  
Relina was enveloping Meta in a hug and Kate was leaning against Elanna's shoulder. Kate was surprised to feel Elanna shivering.   
  
"I was so scared when that happened, for you and for the rest of us . . . " the blonde whispered. Landis looked towards Heather helplessly, while the other guys looked at the girls sympathetically.   
  
"Don't worry, we wouldn't do anything like that to you guys . . . " Squid whispered, looking genuinely sorry.   
  
"We promise, we're not like Thlump," said Zgizag quietly.   
  
Armpit was still apologizing, though X-Ray still whacked him upside the head anyways. "You don't say things like _forcing_ girls to kiss or _something_ after two of the girls you're talking to just got groped!" he hissed.   
  
"Hey, it's okay," Meta whispered. "He didn't mean it like that. What he said just took us by surprise, that's all . . ." Kate nodded, rubbing circles on Elanna's back to get her to stop shivering. "I say we change the subject," she said. "How about some humor slash entertainment? You got your mini-rap yet, Caveman?"   
  
Stanley nodded, still feeling slightly unsettled.   
  
"Okay, let's hear it!" Elanna said loudly, trying to get the subject changed as soon as possible.   
  
"Um, okay, but it's not very good," he mumbled. "It's mostly about this place, actually . . ."   
  
All the girls stopped and looked at each other, hardly daring to think about the possibility of what Stanley's rap could be . . .   
  
Stanley cleared his throat and started to hum the beat.   
  
_"Two suits, two tokens in hand, __  
  
I got no respect 'cause I'm the new man!   
  
Got my shovel, shoes full of sand;   
  
Check out the tag, the name's Caveman!"_   
  
""OH MY GOD!"" all the girls screamed.   
  
"Um, what?" Stanley blushed.   
  
"Oh, that was really good," Heather said lamely to cover up.   
  
"Ya think?" Stanley asked, giving a kind of sideways hopeful grin.   
  
X-Ray furrowed his brow. "That was pretty good actually, Caveman," he said thoughtfully. "We could probably write a whole song with things like that, and we'd have our own parts and everything . . . "   
  
"That's not a bad idea," Squid said. "Give us something to do while we're digging, anyways . . ."   
  
While the guys were discussing the prospect of writing a whole song because of Stanley's dare/rap, the girls were all whispering excitedly.   
  
"I can't believe this! It's the beginnings of Dig It!" Aly said enthusiastically.   
  
"I know! This is one of my favorite songs!" Elanna agreed.   
  
"You know," Relina began thoughtfully, "if we sang my math song, they might get ideas from the tune and end up writing the rest of the verses themselves!"   
  
"Oh my gosh, that would be so wicked!" Meta gushed. "We'll have to plant it somehow . . . "   
  
"We'll do that later," said Aly. "They're done talking now, so let's get back to the game . . . "   
  
"Okay, I did the dare," Stanley said, still slightly red because of the exuberant praise he had received. "So now I get to choose someone . . . hmm, who I shall I pick . . .?"   
  
Stanley looked around the tent, concentrating hard. Then he chose his next victim. "Sorry Elanna . . ."   
  
"What?" Elanna had been in her own little world, thinking private thoughts, as well as Kate and Aly, who snapped back to reality as well.   
  
"Truth or dare?" he asked, a small smile on his face.   
  
"Oh . . . dare . . .?" She didn't seem very sure of her answer.   
  
"Hmm . . ." Stanley had never really done anything to embarrass anybody before, but he needed to think of something quickly or he'd be the delay of the game. He seriously didn't want that to happen. "Okay, I dare you to steal food from the Mess Hall."   
  
"That's it? All right."   
  
As she got up, Magnet warned her that the lunch people were strict. "Steal food and they find out, dishes for a month. Steal scarce food and they find out, dishes for the rest of your stay."   
  
Elanna swallowed. It was more of a risk than she thought, but she knew she could do it. "All right." She exited the tent and everyone followed her to the Mess Hall.   
  
Shaking a bit, she stepped inside and crouched next to a bench. Seeing that no one was around, she continued her dare. Everyone was watching at the door, crouching and watching.   
  
She went beside the counter where the previous food had been. It looked even more horrible when it dried. After a bit of gagging, she crawled to the door that linked the kitchen to Mess Hall. Everybody else had to move, but there was nowhere to go so they had to go back to the tent.   
  
Elanna went in, nervous, but sure that she could do it. She bent over behind a shelf that contained, well, nothing. She smiled. But it quickly faded when she saw three of the lunch people enter the room. Her jaw slightly dropped, but she regained confidence. Slowly, she crawled to the end of the shelf. It was a dead end. A cook was headed her way when Elanna bumped into the shelf. It nearly fell, but stayed upright.   
  
"What was that?"   
  
"What was what? Oh, that? I tripped."   
  
"Oh."   
  
She let out a breath she had been holding. She slid over a counter and waited for everyone to leave. But two more people came in. One including the Warden. Feeling a stab of panic, she shut her eyes tight. She hit her hand on the counter, which opened a cabinet accidentally. Dumbfounded, she peered inside. Getting a feeling of excitement, she ran out of the Mess Hall as fast as she could with a can of beans.   
  
"What was that?" The Warden asked.   
  
"Bill just went to go get some water."   
  
Proud of herself, she marched towards D-tent with the can in her hands.   
  
"You got it?!" shouted Stanley.   
  
Relina shushed him.   
  
"Of course I did, but it was hard." Elanna sat back down with the rest of the group.   
  
"Hmmm . . . cool," Heather said, taking hold of the can.   
  
"Your turn," said Aly.   
  
"Okay . . . " Her eyes traveled around the tent. Who was her victim going to be?   
  
Elanna stared around at the group. She realized surprisingly for the first time, that their own little group was seven, as was the original D-Tent group. That made fourteen kids in D-Tent. Poor Pendanski, she thought with a grin.   
  
"Elanna, hun, generally grinning while picking who to Truth or Dare is taken as a bad sign."   
  
Elanna rolled her eyes at Kate, and then brightened up.   
  
"Kate, truth or dare?"   
  
The tent, which had been talking quietly amongst themselves waiting for Elanna to pick was suddenly quiet. Kate felt the blood drain from her face.   
  
She had been hoping all game that she wouldn't get picked, even though it was she who suggested it. Normally, she'd be willing to play Truth or Dare at the blink of an eye, but after the little 'Thlump' incident, she was a little afraid of boys in general. Even the D-Tent boys. And that was saying something.   
  
Elanna hugged Kate. "Kate, I'm not going to make you do anything . . . like . . . that."   
  
Kate nodded, her trust in Elanna overriding her sudden fear of guys.   
  
"Yeah, besides, we ain't like that." Magnet said. "We wouldn't force you to do . . . anything."   
  
"You'd better not," Meta muttered.   
  
Kate smiled at him, and turned back to Elanna.   
  
"Because Truth questions are the epitome of evil, I'll pick Dare," Kate said, her natural outgoingness returning.   
  
Elanna thought. "Okay . . . um . . . you have to . . . go outside and yell 'Pendanski is a pansy' five times."   
  
There was complete stunned silence for about ten seconds, and then laughter echoed around the tent. After it had died down, X-Ray turned curiously to Elanna.   
  
"What do you guys have against Pendanski? You just got here," he said.   
  
Elanna could have hit herself. Of course, she wasn't supposed to know about Pendanski being a bastard yet.   
  
"He's making us dig holes, that's bad enough for me," Aly said, saving Elanna.   
  
Armpit shook his head. "Nah, it's the Warden who's makin' us dig holes."   
  
"No, it's the lizards!" Zigzag told Meta seriously. She nodded with a straight face, but when he turned away, she mouthed 'He's so cute!' to Kate. Kate grinned in reply.   
  
"Besides, wouldn't you have had to dig holes anyway, being sent to Camp Green Lake and all? _Someone_ would make you dig holes." Stanley pointed out.   
  
Kate shook her head. "We weren't actually sent to Camp Green Lake."   
  
The boys, minus Landis, stared at them. "Then why are you here?" Squid asked.   
  
"Stuck in the desert. Closest place with water, and we needed help since Kate fainted." Landis said.   
  
Stanley whistled. "Feel for you Kate, I got a curse too." Zero looked at him.   
  
Kate laughed. "Nah, I just got bad luck. But it can't be that bad, 'cause at least you guys seem pretty cool. What if I was in Thlump's tent?"   
  
There was more silence, as everyone contemplated that scenario. Kate felt a shiver run down her spine. Creepy.   
  
"Well, are you going to do the dare or not?" Heather asked, breaking the silence.   
  
Kate nodded, getting up. Everyone followed her to the door of the tent. Suddenly, Kate turned back. She ran and grabbed a canteen. At everyone's stares, she grinned. "Might as well do the thing right."   
  
Relina groaned. "Don't get caught, Kate."   
  
"Well, what's the worst he could do?" Kate asked.   
  
"Make you dig another hole."   
  
"Ah," Kate said. She shrugged. "Then I'll dig another hole, pass out in the sun and shrivel up and die. It's a win-win situation."   
  
Everyone stared at her, and then started to laugh as they realized she was kidding. She rolled her eyes at the pause. "Well, you little kiddies stay in the tent and be good little girls and boys, okay?" X-Ray and Aly nodded.   
  
It had been obvious from the start that although X-Ray was the leader of all of D-Tent, 1 and 2, Aly was the leader of D2. Second-in-command. Sort of.   
  
With deep breath, and a giggle from Zigzag, Kate ran out of the tent, banging the empty canteen with the palm of her hand. All heads in the surrounding area turned and looked, including, Kate realized with a jolt, Pendanski. Oh, shit. Might as well get over with it. There was no going back now.   
  
At the top of her lungs, Kate looked up at the clear blue sky and yelled, "PENDANSKI IS A PANSY! PENDANSKI IS A PANSY! PENDANSKI IS A PANSY! PENDANSKI IS A PANSY! PENDANSKI IS A PANSY!"   
  
Laughter met this, the laughter of all the kids wearing orange suits, and two or three voices joined in from some of other the counselors. Mr. Sir leaned against the shower stalls and snorted in laughter. Kate was about to turn on her heel, when a hand grabbed the front of her jumpsuit. A familiar terror overtook her, not that of being grabbed by an official, but Kate was reminded of Thlump grabbing her. Was it him? Was he going to touch her again? What if he went further? What if . . .    
  
She screamed.   
  


  
*   *   *  
  
D-Tent had gone back into the tent after Kate left their sight, and after hearing her yells of 'Pendanksi is a pansy', had all doubled over in laughter. But then they heard Kate scream. Jumping up, they all muttered curse words and ran out of the tent. And saw Kate being held with a hand over her mouth from behind by Pendanski. She couldn't see who was holding her. Her eyes were wide, and she seemed to be trying to breath but not able too. Pendanski was unknowingly covering her nose as well as her mouth.   
  
"Let go of her! She can't breath!" Elanna screamed. D-Tent surrounded Pendanski and Kate, who were surrounded by a crowd of boys in orange jumpsuits. They all wanted to see what would happen to this girl who wasn't afraid of Pendanski's wrath. Well, of course, who was? But he had water-taking-away privileges.   
  
Squid and Zigzag ran forward and wrenched a furious Pendanski's hands off Kate. She fell to her knees gasping for breath. Meta and Elanna pulled her up again. She pushed them away, and stood by herself, finally realizing that it was only Pendanski and not Thlump.   
  
"Y-you! Come with me, we're going to the Warden." Mr. Pendanski grabbed her jumpsuit again. Kate glared at him defiantly. She'd had enough of this. Stupid prick. She smiled sweetly, shook her head, and with all her strength, kneed him in the crotch. Hard.   
  
"Don't touch me." She snarled.   
  
"Whoa." Magnet said. Squid nodded.   
  
Laughter erupted as Pendanski curled up on the ground holding himself. Zero came up beside Kate and grinned up at her. "That's going to hurt him for quite a while." Kate smiled back at him.   
  
Armpit grimaced. "Don't ever let me get on your bad side, okay?"   
  
Kate laughed.   
  
Pendanski stumbled to his feet, and then fell down again. Elanna was nearly on the ground, she was laughing so hard.   
  
"Elanna, breathe." Kate told her. Elanna tried to nod, then started laughing again.   
  
"Come . . . . to . . . . Warden . . . ." Pendanski said with clenched teeth.   
  
"You really think she'd wanna hear about this?" Mr. Sir said, coming up behind Pendanski. He tilted his head so that the scars from her fingernails were clearly visible. Pendanski flinched, and turned back to Kate.   
  
"Well, just this once, you're free of the Warden. But one more toe out of line . . . . "   
  
Kate blinked innocently. "Yes, Mr. Pendanski." She nodded, a fake smile on her face.   
  
"Good." Pendanski grunted, leaning over. "Sir, a little help?" he asked Mr. Sir. Mr. Sir snorted.   
  
"Yeah right."   
  
Slowly, D-Tent inched away, until they were far enough away to run back to the tent.   
  
"That was the best thing ever," Squid laughed, sitting on a cot.   
  
Kate smiled, but shuddered again.   
  
"Kate. He's not going to touch you. You either, Meta. You guys aren't ever going anywhere alone again, I can't believe we forgot that before." X-Ray told them.   
  
Heather groaned. "Really? Our whole time here?"   
  
X-Ray nodded.   
  
"Joy." she responded dryly.   
  
"Hahah," Landis laughed.   
  
"Shut up, Landex." Aly said, swatting him with a pillow.   
  
"So, who next?" Kate said, coming back to the game. She looked around. "I know . . . Armpit!"   
  
Armpit blinked. "What?"   
  
"Truth or Dare!"   
  
"No duh." Relina whispered, rolling her eyes.   
  
"Uh . . . dare." Armpit said after a brief pause.   
  
Kate grinned. "I dare you to eat that whole can of beans without touching it with your hands." Everyone started laughing.   
  
"Dude, you are so NOT sleeping next to me tonight." Squid groaned. "Go fuckin' find somewhere else to sleep. Like, a hole!"   
  
"Mmm . . . sleeping with the lizards. Exciting." Landis commented.   
  
"Better then licking a foot." Zero said with a smile. Stanley scrunched up his face.   
  
"Or singing . . . wait, I like singing better. Never mind," Stanley said quickly.   
  
Heather laughed. "Slight problem though. No can opener."   
  
There was silence, and then Aly turned to Magnet. "Hey, why don't you go steal one from Mess Hall?"   
  
Elanna shook her head. "Nah, too many people there when it's close to dinner. Anyone have a knife?"   
  
Kate looked at her. "Didn't you read the sign? No weapons are allowed on the premis– " she paused as Squid reached under his cot and pulled out a pocket knife. "Okay, that was kind of creepy."   
  
Squid shrugged. "Never knew when it would come in handy."   
  
Meta sighed. "Next time I'm SO going to use it against Thlump." She grinned. "If Kate's kneeing technique doesn't hold up, of course."   
  
Kate laughed. "Right behind ya."   
  
"Well, come on then. Eat those beans, Armpit!" Relina encouraged.   
  
Armpit smiled, and taking the knife, cut it open as close to the edge as possible so it wouldn't kill him when he put his mouth to it. He finished with a surprisingly blunt rim, much to the amazement of D2.   
  
Squid laughed. "Armpit has much practice in the art of opening food."   
  
"Oh shut up," Elanna said. "Alright, now EAT!"   
  
Armpit waited a few seconds before putting his hands behind his back and sticking as much face as he could get into the can.   
  
Relina stuck out her tongue and Stanley's eyes widened quite considerably. Everyone else watched in fascination.   
  
"Wow," said Meta. "I wonder how much he'll be able to get down."   
  
"Yeah," Elanna said. "If he doesn't get it all over the tent first!"   
  
Already, the beans had spilled all over his face, his jumpsuit, a nearby cot, and the surrounding grounds.   
  
Squid and Zigzag went up to hold his arms back. Then Armpit lifted his head. He hadn't eaten it all, but was just taking a break.   
  
"Hurry up," X-Ray urged.   
  
"Okay, okay!" Armpit dove back down.   
  
Squid and Zigzag took hold of his arms again. When he lifted his head again, the can was as empty as it would get, and Armpit was breathing heavily.   
  
"That was quick," said Aly.   
  
"Yeah," agreed Magnet. "I was timing. Forty-eight seconds. No hands, one break."   
  
"All right," Armpit sighed as he wiped the last bit of beans from his face. "What time is it?" he asked.   
  
"Um . . . somewhere around . . . I dunno, look outside!" X-Ray made a gesture towards the door.   
  
Armpit got up and looked outside. The sun was just beginning to set. "Okay, Magnet, truth or dare?"   
  
Magnet seemed to be thinking. Nobody had chosen truth yet, but dare was fun, and so, "Dare."   
  
"Hmm . . . " Armpit cast his eyes down. "I dare you to . . . um . . ." There was a long pause.   
  
"Well, we don't have all day. Well, we do, until we start digging," Heather said.   
  
"I dare you to . . . uh, tell Mom that he's a fox . . . ?" He had obviously delayed the game, but not for long. Everyone exploded with laughter.   
  
"NO WAY!" shouted Magnet, still laughing.   
  
"Fine . . . " Armpit started cracking his knuckles.   
  
"Hey!! Wait! Never mind." Magnet headed for Mr. Pendanski.   
  
Everyone followed him to F-Tent. He wasn't sure if it would be in front of the other counselors or not.   
  
When he got there, D1 and 2 hid in two holes. Magnet swallowed and looked back. Armpit began cracking the rest of his knuckles. Swallowing again, he entered the tent.   
  
"José, you know you're not to be here!" said Mr. Pendanski.   
  
Magnet said nothing, but was relieved that Pendanski was the only counselor there. "Okay, Mom, I think you're a . . . "   
  
"A what?"   
  
"Ithinkyou'reafox!" Then he ran out of the counselor tent completely red.   
  
Mr. Pendanski ran out. "Wait, José! Come back! I feel the same way about you!"   
  
D-Tent burst out in laughter again, only this time much louder. Some guys from the other tents came out then went back in. Shrimp, a member of A-tent, stayed out and approached them. "What'cha doin'?"   
  
The laughter simmered down. "Um . . . Truth or Dare," answered X-Ray, a little confused.   
  
"Can I play too?" he asked timidly.   
  
"Uh, sorry, but it's only for D-tent," said Elanna.   
  
"Oh . . . " he said sadly, and retreated back to his tent. It is a wonder how he ended up at Green Lake (one day he exploded in fits of anger and killed an endangered animal in the zoo).   
  
"Okay . . ." said Aly.   
  
"Let's head back," said Squid.   
  
"Your turn, Magnet," said Relina.   
  
Magnet's beet red face was slowly regaining its original color. Then he said, "Uh . . . Meta. Truth or dare?"   
  
"_Me_?" Meta questioned. She, like Kate, had been hoping not to get chosen.   
  
"Yes, you. Truth or dare?" repeated Magnet.   
  
Meta was silent, but knew she had to pick one or the other.   
  
"Go on, Metza! Pick one!" called Kate, using one of her nicknames for Meta.   
  
"Yeah, go on, it can't possibly be worse then what Magnet just had to do!" Zigzag grinned.   
  
Magnet glared. "Come on, guys, that was so not funny . . . !"   
  
"You're right, it wasn't funny," said Elanna in a serious voice. Everyone in the tent turned and looked at her like she was nuts. "Not funny - - hilarious!" She burst into laughter, and after a moment's silence in which her statement sunk in, the rest of the tent did as well. Magnet's ears turned red in embarrassment.   
  
After everyone calmed down, Heather again asked Meta her choice. "Come on babe, ya gotta choose something."   
  
Meta's eyes darted around nervously. So far, everyone had done a dare, so she decided to go along the beaten path and not break the dare-streak.   
  
"Dare."   
  
"Yay, more embarrassment," Armpit commented absently, not that he had really been embarrassed by his dare . . . after all, he got to eat extra food, although cold beans that tasted nasty in the first place weren't as appealing as other choices could be.  
  
"Should she have to say something to Pendanski again?" Landis smirked.   
  
"Nah, the fox thing kind of disturbed me enough," gagged Aly.   
  
"Imitations? Pretending to be a train? Something to do with shoes?" asked Elanna, spitting out random ideas.   
  
"Nah, who the hell could we get her to imitate?" asked X-Ray.   
  
Elanna just looked at him and shrugged. "Hey, I'm basically saying whatever pops into my head."   
  
Zero scowled slightly. "The last time you did that I ended up licking a foot. Now you're going to punish your friend as well?"   
  
Elanna turned red and ruffled Zero's hair lightly. "Hey, I'm sorry Zee! I hadn't realized it would be so nauseating at the time . . .!"   
  
Stanley turned to Kate. "I don't know whether to be embarrassed or feel sorry for Zero," he sighed.   
  
"Okay, okay, I've got one!" Magnet shouted. The tent quieted almost instantly, eager to hear Magnet's dare. Meta gulped.   
  
"Okay, I dare you," he paused for effect, "to act like a chicken, for a whole five minutes! That means clucking, waddling, and whatever it is chickens do!"   
  
Meta fell over. "Nooooooo! That's so stuuuuuuuuuupid, can't I do something ellllllllllllllllllllllse?!" she whined.   
  
"Hey, that's his dare. You gotta do it," X-Ray grinned.   
  
"Argh. Okay, I'll do the dare!"   
  
"Oooh, Meta's a chicken!"   
  
"Shut up, Elanna."   
  
"Okay, start when I tell you to," Kate said. "I'm timing you," she pointed to the watch on her wrist. "Okay, five, four three, tw-"   
  
"Wait!" Meta yelled, desperately trying to delay herself from turning into a chicken. "Isn't it time for dinner? I mean, look, it's close to seven-thirty, and the sun's gonna start to set soon, so shouldn't we go to dinner? Please?"   
  
Squid groaned. "Come on, we have time for your dare before dinner!"   
  
Much to everyone's surprise, Mr. Pendanski popped his head inside the tent. "All right D-Tent, it's time for dinner, so get to Mess Hall!" This was mostly for the girl's benefit, as the guys already knew when to go for dinner. He proceeded to jog off, probably so he could grab all the good food for himself with the other counselors.   
  
Inside the tent, everyone looked disappointed, but Meta, who had been hoping she wouldn't be chosen at all, was looking like she might collapse from relief.   
  
"All right, I guess that means no dare for me; let's go eat . . . "   
  
Relina groaned. "Don't try to weasel out of this one, Meta, we're continuing after we eat."   
  
"What? No!"   
  
"Hahah, Meta's a chicken."   
  
"Shut up, Zig."   
  
They all filed out of the tent. Elanna was about to race Zigzag, Kate, and Relina to the hall before X-Ray stopped them.   
  
"Hey, remember what I said? You girls can't go anywhere alone, ya gotta take a guy with you!"   
  
"Oh, yeah," Relina said, stopping. Kate blanched and almost attached herself to Zigzag's arm, but managed to stop herself.   
  
"Okay, the way I see it," Aly started, acting as the leader or second-in-command to X-Ray, "is that each girl should go with a guy. Assignment, if you will."   
  
"Good idea," X-Ray agreed. "We don't want Thlump or anyone else to try anything."   
  
"Excuse me, did you just say 'anyone else?'" Landis asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at Heather.   
  
"Yeah, I mean, who else do we have to watch out for?" Elanna demanded.   
  
"Well, there's Thlump and the rest of B-Tent, they're all bad," Armpit said, his eyes moving skyward as he thought. "A-Tent will leave you alone, some of them are good guys, and C-Tent is kind of half-and-half. There are good guys in C-Tent, and bad guys in C-Tent. The guys you have to watch out for, other than Thlump, are Easy and all the guys in E-Tent. They're almost as bad as B-Tent is."   
  
"How wonderful," Kate commented dryly.   
  
"Oh, shiitake mushrooms!" Elanna yelled, turning her swear into a different word like she often did.   
  
The rest of the tent stood before him and Aly, waiting to see who'd they be 'assigned,' though Aly moved back into the line as X-Ray was obviously in his element.   
  
"Relina, you stick close to me or Pit, okay? You're the smallest, after all, no offence."   
  
Relina nodded.   
  
"I'll go with Aly," Magnet offered. Aly jumped up and punched the air when he wasn't looking, and agreed very enthusiastically.   
  
"Eh. You'll protect me, Landis. And no, you don't get a choice." Heather smirked. Landis glared.   
  
"Squid, you go with Kate, and Ziggy, you stay close to Meta, a'ight?" X-Ray turned to Meta and Kate. "Squid's a damn good fighter, and so is Zig when he hasn't got two guys hanging off of him. You'll be safer with them."   
  
Meta and Kate turned to each other, talking excitedly, once X-Ray moved away.   
  
Elanna, Stanley, and Zero were eyeing each other.   
  
"Ooh, decision, decision," Elanna joked.   
  
Stanley turned away. "I'm not much of a fighter. Ask X-Ray if you can switch or something . . ."   
  
"Hey, I'll be fine. You're the Caveman, after all. Plus, X-Ray didn't give Zero anyone to protect, so he can be your back up or something. Right Zero?"   
  
Zero didn't say anything. He felt Stanley would be enough. And X-Ray obviously didn't think he could protect anyone anyways . . . But he'd be there if things went wrong. That's how he was.   
  
"Wow, going to dinner turned out to be a big deal." Relina said.   
  
"Well, you know, don't wanna take chances . . ."   
  
"Understood."   
  
They walked towards the large building.   
  
"So, what's the food like? I'm actually kinda hungry," Meta was asking Zigzag.   
  
"It's terrible, and coming from me, that's saying something," Armpit said.   
  
Meta laughed uncertainly.   
  
"Dude, I don't think he was joking," Kate said, eyes going a bit wide.   
  
"Well, that fantastic bit of information just made MY day," Elanna griped, much to the amusement of the guys. "Eh, I can eat just about anything if I really have to," she said. "Maybe you're all just exaggerating . . .   
  
They were much closer to Mess Hall now, and Elanna was ready to break into a run.   
  
"Don't," cautioned Stanley. "You never know what you'll run into . . ."   
  
Aly stopped suddenly. "Uh, guys? What tent are those dudes in?" About six or seven guys had come out of Mess Hall, and they were moving towards D-Tent. Fast.   
  
Magnet peered in their direction, then cursed in Spanish. "It's Easy," he said.   
  
Kate paled and moved closer to Squid. "Great, Thlump the Second," she whispered.   
  
"Maybe they're coming to say 'hi . . . '" Relina said lamely.   
  
Elanna held herself upright and kept walking. "Ignore them, and try not to look like you're gonna faint. It makes it that much harder for them to intimidate us."   
  
"Ooh, smart words from a blonde," Landis teased.   
  
"Bite me."   
  
E-Tent reached D-Tent, much to Kate and Meta's chagrin.   
  
"Hey there, X-Ray," Easy began in a calm, smooth voice. "Enjoying the new additions to D-Tent?"   
  
"You might say that," X-Ray said cautiously, pushing Relina behind him and closer to Armpit, who was much bigger then he was.   
  
"They any good?"   
  
"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Stanley spluttered angrily.   
  
"I think you know," said one of Easy's friends. Elanna scrunched up her face in disgust, with similar reactions from the others girls who got the meaning.   
  
"Dumbass," muttered Aly.   
  
"Feisty," commented another of Easy's friends, reaching towards Aly. She let out a yell of disgust and jumped backwards, but Magnet had already batted the guy's arm away and gave him a punch in the head hard enough to send him reeling.   
  
"No one said you could touch," Landis admonished in a joking fashion, even though his face held an extremely angry look.   
  
"You okay, Aly?" whispered Heather.   
  
"Fine, Magnet got him for me," Aly said, glaring at the guy.   
  
Kate, however, remembering last time, slid herself behind Squid. "Please help me," she whispered into the small of Squid's back.   
  
"It'll be okay, don't worry," Squid said quietly and reassuringly. Zigzag's arm was resting calmly in front of Meta. Landis didn't trouble himself with bravado and just stepped in front of Heather completely. You couldn't even see Relina at all, Armpit completely blocked her from view with his bulk.   
  
"I told the whole Wreck Room to leave the girls alone if they didn't want us beating on them. Did you think that rule didn't apply to you?" X-Ray hissed irately.   
  
"Maybe we weren't in the Wreck Room when you said that," suggested Easy slyly.   
  
"Oh, you were," Zigzag said, eyes narrowed.   
  
"Well, maybe we thought you only meant B-Tent had to leave them alone. And we aren't in B-Tent, are we?" Easy spoke again.   
  
"Lame excuse," Squid ridiculed, shifting so he blocked Kate from view completely.   
  
"Maybe you should move closer to Stanley now," Zero whispered to Elanna.   
  
Seeing how close Easy was, Elanna agreed, and hastily moved closer to Stanley. 'Closer' meaning almost falling on him. Easy, however, caught the movement.   
  
"Hey, you! The blonde! He isn't really with you, I saw you move close to him just now! You're free, right?"   
  
_'Oh shit . . . He's talking to me, isn't he?! Shit, shit, shit . . .'_ Elanna thought, horrified.   
  
"Come on, come here!" The rest of D-Tent growled at him, and the girls looked on, starting to get more and more freaked out.   
  
Elanna shrank into Stanley's side, pressing close into him. "Help me, help me, help me please . . .," she mumbled.   
  
"Sorry, she's with me," Stanley said quickly and boldly, hoping to deter him.   
  
"You move one step closer and we're all gonna kick the shit out of you," X-Ray warned.   
  
Easy grinned and took one step closer. The guys of D-Tent, plus Landis, all looked at each other, and at the same time, rushed in and took E-Tent on. The girls stepped back, afraid of getting caught in the fray.   
  
Even more surprising then Stanley rushing in to beat E-Tent senseless when he didn't really fight was that Zero had dove straight towards Easy, and was delivering hard blows to wherever he could reach.   
  
"You don't . . . treat . . . girls . . . like . . . that . . . " he said with clenched teeth, in between blows. He was yelling now, and everyone had stopped; some of the E-Tent boys had never even heard Zero speak, let alone yell. "They aren't things you can just touch, or look at, they're people! You have to respect them!"   
  
Easy looked taken aback. He was going to have several bruises because of that Zero kid . . .   
  
"Let's go. Let the bastards have fun with the girls." E-Tent turned and left, but not before Easy had had the last say - - he punched Zero hard in the stomach to get him off, before turning and leaving with his friends.   
  
"Holy SHIT," said Aly, while Elanna immediately ran to where Stanley and Zero were. Zero had fallen to his knees, gasping and trying to breathe because of Easy's blow to his stomach. She knelt beside him.   
  
"Oh my GOD! Zero! Are you okay?!"   
  
"Easy, give him some room," both Heather and Stanley said simultaneously. Zero just coughed and held his hand up to show he was okay.   
  
"I'm fine," he coughed. "Give me a minute . . ."   
  
Once Zero was able to breathe properly and was standing up, Elanna hugged him, followed closely by Kate. "That was some speech," they whispered to him. He smiled shakily. "I meant it . . . you girls are all right." His gaze traveled to where Meta was hugging Zigzag happily and enthusing about his great job, Aly and Heather talking to Magnet, Squid and Landis, and Relina handing X-Ray his glasses, which had fallen off while he was fighting and finally back to Elanna and Kate, who were gazing at him in awe and admiration. He smiled again, blushing slightly.   
  
"You're okay, right?" Stanley was asking both Zero and Elanna.   
  
"Yep, yep, nice job Caveman!" Elanna hugged Stanley as well. Stanley looked happily embarrassed. Zero nodded his response.   
  
"Right, we should get to dinner . . . " Meta said, trailing off.   
  
"Yeah, we should."   
  
The group made it into Mess Hall. The girls stared all over the place, the building unfamiliar. It was cafeteria style, with a line of boys waiting for the stereotypical lunch ladies to pile food on trays. It smelled very . . . different. The food the lunch ladies were serving looked like piles of dung, and they also saw some unidentifiable green stringy slop. The group made it into the line, and eventually, everyone in D-Tent had a plastic tray and plate full of brown stuff that looked and smelled like dung, stringy green slop, and some small carrots that were an unappetizing shade of vomit-ish orange.   
  
"Lovely," commented Relina, holding her nose.   
  
"Hey, be grateful they're not serving beans tonight," Zigzag admonished. Instantly, everyone turned towards Elanna and Armpit.   
  
""What? Those were dares . . ."" They both complained.   
  
The tables were also like those found in a cafeteria, long with varnished wood, with benches on either side. The members of Tents D and D2 all slid down the benches, and commenced eating.   
  
"EW! This stuff is NASTY!" Meta shrieked, almost spitting the food out and all over Squid, who was sitting across from her.   
  
"Tell me about it," Kate said, making faces as she chewed.   
  
"Yeah, this stuff is gross, but it could be worse," Elanna swallowed beside Kate. "I always have the nastiest stuff whenever I go camping, and this stuff is only slightly worse . . ."   
  
"Well, that's a happy thought." Aly glared at her plate.   
  
"Hey, does anyone else think this stuff looks like poop?" Stanley asked, poking the brown stuff with his knife. "I mean, look at it! It has the texture of poop, looks like poop, and smells like poop."   
  
"I think it's supposed to be meatloaf . . . " Heather said.   
  
"Hah, meatloaf my ass!" Landis choked.   
  
"Yeah, it's meatloaf if by that you mean a gooey brown loaf that came _out_ of the meat!" Elanna cried.   
  
Everyone snorted into his or her plates.   
  
"Hey Armpit, how about you test this stuff out? If it actually is a pile of crap, I'll give you my shower tokens for tomorrow and the day after that," Squid said.   
  
"I don't think shower tokens can make up for eating a pile of shit . . ." X-Ray commented, raising an eyebrow.   
  
"Go on, how bad could it be? I just wanna know if that stuff is safe to eat," Squid persisted. "And if it isn't crap, I'll give you my carrots, 'cause you still tested it. Go on, the carrots are the most decent things here."   
  
"I dunno," Armpit said slowly, staring at the mess on his plate. "Shower tokens if it's crap, carrots if it's not?"   
  
"Yep."   
  
"Ugh, I don't like where this conversation is going," said Kate.   
  
Armpit looked at the brown stuff, studying it.   
  
Five minutes later, Armpit was still trying to decide whether or not to eat the meatloaf/crap.   
  
"Come on, Pit!! What have you got to lose?" Squid chided   
  
"Dude! What if it IS crap?! What if I get sick?!" Armpit argued.   
  
"What if it isn't? And if you do get sick, then maybe you'll get a day off of digging or something." Elanna pointed out.   
  
"Yeah, and either way you get something! Shower tokens or carrots!" Relina added.   
  
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Heather said, folding her hands and making puppy eyes.   
  
"ALRIGHT. FINE. I will." Armpit said.   
  
"YES!" came the consensus of the rest of the table. Meta and Kate gave each other a high five over the table.   
  
Armpit slowly cut a corner off of his meatloaf/crap. He the raised it to his nose and sniffed it.   
  
"DUDE! Well we know it smells like crap." Armpit said, as if this were news.   
  
"No duh." Zigzag said.   
  
Armpit kept stalling, so Aly started a rousing chant of "Do it! Do it! Do it!" which the whole table joined in. Finally, Armpit shoved the fork in his mouth, chewed, made a face, then swallowed.   
  
"So?" Squid asked.   
  
"Dude, I think it is meatloaf!" Armpit said triumphantly.   
  
"Sweeeeeeeet," Landis said, as he took a huge bite of his. He then spit it all back out onto his tray.   
  
"GROSSSSSSSSS!!!" everyone exclaimed in unison.   
  
"Landis. Don't. Do. That." Heather said, as if she were explaining it to a three year old.   
  
"But it was ICKY!" Landis said, as if he _were_ a three year old.   
  
"Don't give me that," Heather said, exasperated.   
  
Squid handed over his carrots, and Armpit wolfed them down as if he hadn't eaten in a week.   
  
A few minutes later, dinner was over. D-Tents 1 and 2 got up to walk back to the tent.

~*~*~*~*~

Written by The Holes Posse.

Editing done by Elanna and Kate.

Author's Notes by Kate.  


End file.
